Tactile Sensor Sub-System Utilizing a Fingertip-Shaped Sensor with Shear Force-Sensing Capability.

摘要

The goals of the project concerned (1) the performance of advanced research for the purpose of establishing the technical feasibility of a fingertip-shaped tactcile sensor concept capable of sensing both the shear and normal components of contact force, and (2) the construction and evaluation of a microprocessor-based tactile data acquisition and analysis system. The work concentrated on two main areas. The first involved modification of an existing optical tactile sensor technology to permit sensing of the x and y shear force components in addition to the z component. The effort comprised a search and evaluation of various elastomer materials possessing suitable spectral and mechanical properties, and the design, fabrication, and evaluation of a prototypic single-element tactile device. The second area of activity involved development of the optical and digital processing modules of a tactile sensor system capable of acquiring and processing data associated with the tactile sensor and interfacing with an external robot or teleoperator control system. A general program for the latter purpose was written in 'C' and was used in evaluating the performance of a single-element, prototypic sensor.