Design of tactile sensing systems for dextrous manipulators

Preliminary work aimed at understanding the general issues and tradeoffs governing the design of extended tactile sensing systems is reviewed. General methods for estimating the bandwidths of line-addressed and matrix-addressed systems are presented. The proposed tactile sensing system incorporates four subsystems that permit the high-speed access of tactile data: (1) a transduction scheme; (2) a preprocessing scheme; (3) a multiplexing and transmission subsystem; and (4) tactile data selection techniques. Designs for implementation at each of these levels are presented. The designs emphasize practical necessities such as simplicity, reliability, and economy, along with plans to incorporate a tactile system into the Utah/MIT dextrous hand.<>