Anthropomorphic robotic soft fingertip with randomly distributed receptors

To improve the manipulation ability of robotic fingers, this paper proposes a design of an anthropomorphic soft fingertip with distributed receptors. The fingertip consists of two silicon rubber layers of different hardness containing two kinds of receptors, strain gauges and PVDF (polyvinylidene fluoride) films. The structure of the fingertip is similar to that of a human's; it consists of a bone, a body, a skin layer, and randomly distributed receptors inside. Experimental results demonstrate the discriminating ability of the fingertip: it can discriminate five different materials by pushing and rubbing the objects. (c) 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.