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Advanced Tactile Sensors
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Advanced Tactile Sensors

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Intelligent Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2022) | Viewed by 13879

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Antonio Pérez González

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Mechanical Engineering and Construction, Universitat Jaume I, 12071 Castellón de la Plana, Spain
Interests: hand biomechanics; contact pressure measurement in grasp research; artificial hand design and benchmarking
Dr. Lucia Beccai

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
Department of Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia (CMBR-IIT), 56025 Pisa, Italy
Interests: biomechanics of touch; embodied 3D soft transduction; bioinspired soft robotic systems for active touch investigation
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Emile Martincic

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies, Universite Paris-Saclay, 91190 Saint-Aubin, France
Interests: flexible sensors; capacitive force sensors; polymers; PDMS; MEMS; lab-on-chip; micro/nanofabrication
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Advanced tactile sensors are necessary for supporting and spreading technologies such as prosthetics, robotics, teleoperation, human–machine interfaces or wearable devices. New developments are required to reduce the thickness of tactile sensors; to facilitate their integration in artificial hands or haptic devices; to improve their spatial resolution, pressure range, and sensitivity; and to reduce the time and complexity for processing their measurements and integrating them in artificial intelligence applications. Different technologies based on microfluidics, optics or triboelectricity, among others, have expanded the traditional range of applications provided by capacitive, resistive, or piezoelectric sensors. New advanced tactile sensors will be necessary for boosting recent advances in artificial skin and moving towards a new generation of artificial hands able to replace missing limbs or to be integrated in intelligent and helpful robots.

Prof. Dr. Antonio Pérez González
Dr. Lucia Beccai
Dr. Emile Martincic
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • touch sensors
  • strain sensors
  • optical tactile sensors
  • slip and vibration sensors
  • tactile sensor integration
  • artificial intelligence and tactile sensors
  • wearable tactile sensors
  • tactile sensors benchmarking 

Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

20 pages, 6624 KiB  
Article
ESPRESS.0: Eustachian Tube-Inspired Tactile Sensor Exploiting Pneumatics for Range Extension and SenSitivity Tuning
by George P. Jenkinson, Andrew T. Conn and Antonia Tzemanaki
Sensors 2023, 23(2), 567; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s23020567 - 04 Jan 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 6581
Abstract
Optimising the sensitivity of a tactile sensor to a specific range of stimuli magnitude usually compromises the sensor’s widespread usage. This paper presents a novel soft tactile sensor capable of dynamically tuning its stiffness for enhanced sensitivity across a range of applied forces, [...] Read more.
Optimising the sensitivity of a tactile sensor to a specific range of stimuli magnitude usually compromises the sensor’s widespread usage. This paper presents a novel soft tactile sensor capable of dynamically tuning its stiffness for enhanced sensitivity across a range of applied forces, taking inspiration from the Eustachian tube in the mammalian ear. The sensor exploits an adjustable pneumatic back pressure to control the effective stiffness of its 20 mm diameter elastomer interface. An internally translocated fluid is coupled to the membrane and optically tracked to measure physical interactions at the interface. The sensor can be actuated by pneumatic pressure to dynamically adjust its stiffness. It is demonstrated to detect forces as small as 0.012 N, and to be sensitive to a difference of 0.006 N in the force range of 35 to 40 N. The sensor is demonstrated to be capable of detecting tactile cues on the surface of objects in the sub-millimetre scale. It is able to adapt its compliance to increase its ability for distinguishing between stimuli with similar stiffnesses (0.181 N/mm difference) over a large range (0.1 to 1.1 N/mm) from only a 0.6 mm deep palpation. The sensor is intended to interact comfortably with skin, and the feasibility of its use in palpating tissue in search of hard inclusions is demonstrated by locating and estimating the size of a synthetic hard node embedded 20 mm deep in a soft silicone sample. The results suggest that the sensor is a good candidate for tactile tasks involving unpredictable or unknown stimuli. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Tactile Sensors)
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19 pages, 8499 KiB  
Article
BaroTac: Barometric Three-Axis Tactile Sensor with Slip Detection Capability
by Gyuwon Kim and Donghyun Hwang
Sensors 2023, 23(1), 428; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s23010428 - 30 Dec 2022
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 2197
Abstract
Tactile sensors for robotic applications enhance the performance of robotic end-effectors as they ca n provide tactile information to operate various tasks. In particular, tactile sensors can measure multi-axial force and detect slip can aid the end-effectors in grasping diverse objects in an [...] Read more.
Tactile sensors for robotic applications enhance the performance of robotic end-effectors as they ca n provide tactile information to operate various tasks. In particular, tactile sensors can measure multi-axial force and detect slip can aid the end-effectors in grasping diverse objects in an unstructured environment. We propose BaroTac, which measures three-axial forces and detects slip with a barometric pressure sensor chip (BPSC) for robotic applications. A BPSC is an off-the-shelf commercial sensor that is inexpensive, easy to customize, robust, and simple to use. While a single BPSC-based tactile sensor can measure pressure, an array of BPSC-based tactile sensors can measure multi-axial force through the reactivity of each sensor and detect slip by observing high frequency due to slip vibration. We first experiment with defining the fundamental characteristics of a single-cell BPSC-based sensor to set the design parameters of our proposed sensor. Thereafter, we suggest the sensing method of BaroTac: calibration matrix for three-axis force measurement and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) for slip detection. Subsequently, we validate the three-axis force measuring ability and slip detectability of the fabricated multi-cell BPSC-based tactile sensor. The sensor measures three-axis force with low error (0.14, 0.18, and 0.3% in the X-, Y- and Z-axis, respectively) and discriminates slip in the high-frequency range (75–150 Hz). We finally show the practical applicability of BaroTac by installing them on the commercial robotic gripper and controlling the gripper to grasp common objects based on our sensor feedback. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Tactile Sensors)
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11 pages, 3345 KiB  
Article
Spatiotemporal Thermal Control Effects on Thermal Grill Illusion
by Satoshi Saga, Ryotaro Kimoto and Kaede Kaguchi
Sensors 2023, 23(1), 414; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s23010414 - 30 Dec 2022
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1899
Abstract
The thermal grill illusion induces a pain sensation under a spatial display of warmth and coolness of approximately 40 °C; and 20 °C. To realize virtual pain display more universally during the virtual reality experience, we proposed a spatiotemporal control method to realize [...] Read more.
The thermal grill illusion induces a pain sensation under a spatial display of warmth and coolness of approximately 40 °C; and 20 °C. To realize virtual pain display more universally during the virtual reality experience, we proposed a spatiotemporal control method to realize a variable thermal grill illusion and evaluated the effect of the method. First, we examined whether there was a change in the period until pain occurred due to the spatial temperature distribution of pre-warming and pre-cooling and verified whether the period until pain occurred became shorter as the temperature difference between pre-warming and pre-cooling increased. Next, we examined the effect of the number of grids on the illusion and verified the following facts. In terms of the pain area, the larger the thermal area, the larger the pain area. In terms of the magnitude of the pain, the larger the thermal area, the greater the magnitude of the sensation of pain. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Tactile Sensors)
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19 pages, 4062 KiB  
Article
Preliminary Evaluation of the Effect of Mechanotactile Feedback Location on Myoelectric Prosthesis Performance Using a Sensorized Prosthetic Hand
by Eric D. Wells, Ahmed W. Shehata, Michael R. Dawson, Jason P. Carey and Jacqueline S. Hebert
Sensors 2022, 22(10), 3892; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/s22103892 - 21 May 2022
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2169
Abstract
A commonly cited reason for the high abandonment rate of myoelectric prostheses is a lack of grip force sensory feedback. Researchers have attempted to restore grip force sensory feedback by stimulating the residual limb’s skin surface in response to the prosthetic hand’s measured [...] Read more.
A commonly cited reason for the high abandonment rate of myoelectric prostheses is a lack of grip force sensory feedback. Researchers have attempted to restore grip force sensory feedback by stimulating the residual limb’s skin surface in response to the prosthetic hand’s measured grip force. Recent work has focused on restoring natural feedback to the missing digits directly through invasive surgical procedures. However, the functional benefit of utilizing somatotopically matching feedback has not been evaluated. In this paper, we propose an experimental protocol centered on a fragile object grasp and lift task using a sensorized myoelectric prosthesis to evaluate sensory feedback techniques. We formalized a suite of outcome measures related to task success, timing, and strategy. A pilot study (n = 3) evaluating the effect of utilizing a somatotopically accurate feedback stimulation location in able-bodied participants was conducted to evaluate the feasibility of the standardized platform, and to inform future studies on the role of feedback stimulation location in prosthesis use. Large between-participant effect sizes were observed in all outcome measures, indicating that the feedback location likely plays a role in myoelectric prosthesis performance. The success rate decreased, and task timing and task focus metrics increased, when using somatotopically-matched feedback compared to non-somatotopically-matched feedback. These results were used to conduct a power analysis, revealing that a sample size of n = 8 would be sufficient to achieve significance in all outcome measures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advanced Tactile Sensors)
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