Development of a cylindrical tactile sensor with a tooth-like mechanism

This paper reports on the development of a pressure tactile sensor with a tooth-like mechanism. Small-size tactile sensors were needed especially in detecting pressure and tactile perception in small and narrow spaces. The tactile sensor was made inspired by the anatomy of a tooth. A tooth can sense pressure and touch from its surface because of the existence of machanoreceptors around its root. This sensor was made with strain gauges around the inner rod, so that when pressure is applied to the sides of the inner rod, the strain gauges will deform, thus the sensor can detect the direction of the applied pressure. The data collected from an experiment done to the sensor device shows that the resistance of the strain gauge located at the direction of the applied pressure increased during pressure application and decreased when pressure was released, while other strain gauges showed almost no respond to the pressure application. From the experiment, it is concluded that the direction of pressure can be detected by the proposed sensor device.