Ferroelectric polymer tactile sensors with anthropomorphic features

This paper describes a composite transducer for tactile sensing, whose skin-like structure makes it potentially useful in prosthetics as well as in robotics. Such transducer comprises an "epidermal", thin film, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVF2) sensor and two inner layers consisting of a conductive rubber sheet and of an array of 128 PVF2sensors, which are intended to reproduce in part some mechanical features and sensing capabilities of the human dermis. The proposed transducer has been tested and its ability to detect, by touch, hardness, thermal conductivity and surface texture of objects, as well as contact pressure has been assessed. Although much work is still needed to obtain a really usable device, sensitivity, linearity and bandwidth of the present tactile transducer, along with its wide range of sensorial capabilities, strongly encourage further development.