Integrated tactile system for dynamic 3D contact force mapping

We present the first integrated tactile system that is based on dynamic, spatially distributed, three-axial contact force data. Compared to general pressure mapping systems, our devices measure not only one, but all three components of contact forces (normal and shear) with up to 64 independent micromachined force sensing elements integrated on a single chip. The spatially distributed shear force sensing adds new dimensions and directions to tactile data analysis, including pre-slip detection, enhanced robotic grasping or high quality tactile texture classification. In this paper we briefly describe the components of the novel system: the sensor arrays, the data acquisition methods and the data analysis software. We also present two example applications that exploit the advantages of real time three-dimensional contact force mapping.