Tactile Sensing Using an Optical Transduction Method

This paper describes the characteristics of a very high resolution tactile sensor for robotics. The sensor uses a pressure intensity to light intensity transduction method that produces very detailed images of contact. A robot finger-mounted sensor incorporating this method has been built which produces a video output suitable for feeding into a conventional image processing system. The principle and design of the tactile sensor is explained, the main parameters affecting its performance are identified, and experiments using this sensor with an image processing system are described. An example application, using the sensor for grasp error compensation and for inspection, is reported on. Finally, some attributes of tactile sensing are discussed.