An endoscopic and robotic tooth-like compliance and roughness tactile sensor

This paper reports on design, fabrication and testing of a prototype Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) tactile sensor for endoscopic and robotic applications. The sensor can measure both compliance and surface roughness. It consists of rigid and compliant elements. A relative deformation between adjacent parts of the contact object is used to measure the compliance, and the deformation of the compliant element of the sensor is used to measure the profile of a rough surface. The sensor in miniaturized form can be integrated with both endoscopic graspers and robotic end effectors. The theoretical analysis of the sensor is made and compared with experimental values. The advantages and limitations of the sensor are also discussed.