A highly versatile and robust tactile sensing system

In this paper we introduce the concept of a highly versatile tactile sensor system with a high spatial resolution. It can be cut in various shapes and is bendable to fit on one dimensional curved surfaces. The sensor system itself contains information about its shape, geometry of the sensor array, sensor cell parameters and information for communication purposes. This makes an automated sensor identification process possible in which the signal processing hardware is automatically configured Based on this information stored in the "smart" sensor, resulting forces and (based on the sensors geometry) resulting torques are calculated Drift of the signal is overcome by a cell model which significantly improves the calculated values. To achieve a very thin and robust sensor, we developed a sensor material which fulfills these requirements.