A flexible full-body tactile sensor of low cost and minimal connections

In this paper, we introduce a new tactile sensor made of textiles. It has the basic structure of a matrix tactile sensor but uses only four connections to measure the magnitude and position of applied pressure, similar to the analog tactile sensor, which is widely used in touch screens and touch pads. The structure and model of the sensor are introduced. Although we could not map the exact contour of the contact area due to limited connections, the maximum number of touch points in each direction could be detected. The sensor could be used as the full-body tactile sensor for a robot, the smart carpet for a security room and so on.