Development of double-octagon tactile sensor for grasping control

An intelligent robot hand must be able to grasp a variety of objects, such as a fragile egg, a heavy iron and so on. It must be also able to have the ability to finish a job on the basis of tactile information detected by tactile sensors. In order to realize the sensor for an intelligent hand, the conflicting problem between strength and sensitivity of the tactile sensor must be resolved. To resolve this requirements, we propose a tactile sensor called "double-octagon tactile sensor (DOTS)" for the intelligent robot hand. This sensor has high sensitivity and strength, and can precisely sense the grasping force and shearing force between a grasped object and the finger. The paper describes the structure, design and sensing principle of the DOTS, and shows application to prove the effectiveness of DOTS.