Hysteresis Characteristic and Repeat Accuracy of Magnetic Type Tactile Sensor

Tactile sense is an essential sense in our daily lives, and we usually operate or sense objects using our tactile sense. Recently, many touch devices are being produced. They are so intuitive and easy to use that we use them on smartphones or tablet PCs. This is associated with an expectation that combinations of tactile sensor and display can contribute to various applications. Therefore, we are studying a magnetic type tactile sensor which has a simple and tough structure. The feature of the sensor is a softness of touch area. The sensor measures three-axis displacement generated on the surface. In this paper, we describe the details of the structure and show the prototype sensor. The hysteresis characteristic and the repeat accuracy are shown through the laboratory experiment. We verify that the sensor has low-error in measuring displacement.