Design and Application of Flexible Resistive Tactile Sensor Based on Short-Circuit Effect

Resistive tactile sensor has excellent anti-interference characteristics in daily environment. Inspired by the short-circuit effect in electricity, a new design of flexible resistive tactile sensor was proposed in this study. We utilized conductive graphite paint and conductive silver paint as sensing materials to fabricate the high-impedance element (100-150 Q) on the polyimide (PI) film and the low-impedance element (2-10 Q) on the silicone rubber, respectively. The output signal depends on the contact area between the high-impedance and the low-impedance elements caused by the applied pressure, which employs the short-circuit effect for the transduction mechanism. Besides, the spherical microstructure in silicone rubber layer was used to enlarge the measuring range of pressure. The experimental results show a wide range of pressure response up to above 3 MPa, and the resolution of the sensor with spherical structure is 79.6 kPa (0.25 N). The force sensing sensitivity of the sensor S = -5.733 x 10-4 kPa(-1) (from 0 to 799.4 kPa) and S = -1.744 x 10(-4 )kPa(-1) (from 799.4 to 2834.4 kPa). Furthermore, an air gap between the high-impedance and the low-impedance elements was designed for restraining the interference of adjacent sensor arrays. Finally, we demonstrated the application in teleoperation and letter recognition, which implies that the proposed sensor has a great application potential in the field of robotics.

Automated summary

A novel design of flexible resistive tactile sensor was proposed, utilizing conductive graphite paint and conductive silver paint as sensing materials. The output signal depends on the contact area between the high-impedance and low-impedance elements caused by applied pressure, employing the short-circuit effect for the transduction mechanism. The sensor showed a wide range of pressure response up to above 3 MPa and demonstrated potential applications in teleoperation and letter recognition.