Describes the sensing behavior of a high compliant tactile sensor on an object's surface and a formulation of the tactual sensing using methods of differential geometry. The tactile sensor has been manufactured with a function of high compliance, which is achieved with silicone rubber placed on a sensing mechanism organized for the detection of contact patterns. The mechanism is constructed as an optical wave guide which is capable of transmitting the contact pattern to a CCD camera. From the contact pattern, the tactile sensor detects the displacement distribution and the force distribution corresponding to the object's surface shape. By using a method derived from differential geometry, the geometrical contact mechanisms between the sensor and the surface of an object are discussed. The first fundamental form and the second fundamental form are defined by the displacement distribution generated by the tactual sensing. The local shape of the object's surface in, the neighborhood of a contact point is determined from the Gaussian curvature and the mean curvature given by the first fundamental form and the second fundamental form defined by the displacement distribution. Experimental results for estimating an object's local surface shape are presented for a tactile sensor manufactured for trial experiments.
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