Development of an Arrayed Tactile Sensor Having Four Stories and Recognition of Contact State Using Neural Networks

摘要

In the human skin, four kinds of tactile receptors (Meissner corpuscle, Merkel cell, Ruffini ending, and Pacinian corpuscle) are distributed three dimensionally, i.e., not only on the skin surface but also in the four corresponding depths of the skin. The final goal of this study is achieving a flexible tactile sensor having four stories imitating the human skin. In the present paper, the concept of this sensor is proposed, and the recognition method of contact state using neural networks is proposed. In case of contact shape recognition, the effectiveness of the sensor having four stories compared with that having one story is confirmed by FEM simulation. The MEMS fabrication method of an arrayed capacitive tactile sensor made of PDMS, which is a kind of silicone rubber, is proposed. By stacking this sensor one by one, fabrication of a sensor having four stories is possible. In the present paper, an arrayed sensor of one layer is preliminarily fabricated. The basic performance of one capacitive force sensing element and that of an arrayed sensor composed of 3×3 elements are characterized.