Development of an Integrated Multi-Axis Tactile Sensor: Distributed Preprocessing for Tactile Recognitions

A distributed tactile sensor that can sense multi-axis forces and is high-densely arrayed is required in such VR applications as robotic hands and glove-like controllers in tele-existence systems. We are developing elements of a tactile sensor that can simultaneously measure pressure and shear force, and they are small enough to be arrayed densely in small areas due to MEMS process fabrication. However, the signal processing of numerous sensor elements remains a serious problem. In this paper, we studied a solution by a strategy of distributed processing and examined its effectiveness in a simulated environment