An active tactile sensor for detecting mechanical characteristics of contacted objects

We propose an active tactile sensor actuated by magnetic force. The tactile sensor has the advantage of being able to detect mechanical characteristics related to a tactile impression of contacted objects using a single sensor structure, much as human skin functions. It consists of a displacement-sensing element of piezoresistors formed on a silicon diaphragm, and a magnetic actuating element ( a permanent magnet and a flat coil). The sensor has two modes of operation, quasi-static and vibration, and it can detect contact force, elasticity and damping of contacted objects by choosing between operation modes. We fabricated the piezoresistor sensing and magnetic actuating elements by applying the microelectromechanical systems technologies, and assembled them in a hybrid manner. The size of the sensor was 6.0 mm x 6.0 mm x 10 mu m. As contact samples we used three different rubber materials with hardness values ranging from A20 to A60 in Shore A. We experimentally confirmed that both the resonance frequency and the Q-factor of the sensing element in the vibration mode changed with different samples. We were able to calculate the elastic and damping coefficients of the contacted rubber objects by analyzing the vibrational response of the diaphragm. From the results, we concluded that the active sensor can detect mechanical characteristics of contacted objects using a single sensor structure.