Development and fundamental characteristics of a flexible structural tactile sensor

A tactile sensor, which has a flexible structure for measuring contact force, is presented. This sensor has two strain gages, which measure the deformation of this sensor. This sensor can estimate a contact location and amount of contact force. A model of flexible deformation was described by stiffness equations, which include several geometric parameters of the sensor. The model was simulated and compared to experimental data. The comparison shows that the model can accurately estimate a contact location and the amount of contact force. Additional results of the model were compared with experimental data that is assumed to apply in a real environment. As the result, accuracy of the estimated results is under 10% when an upper limit is fixed.