Advances in tactile sensors design/manufacturing and its impact on robotics applications – a review

Abstract

PurposeReviews the benefits and potential application of tactile sensors for use with robots.Design/methodology/approachIncludes the most recent advances in both the design/manufacturing of various tactile sensors and their applications in different industries. Although these types of sensors have been adopted in a considerable number of areas, the applications such as, medical, agricultural/livestock and food, grippers/manipulators design, prosthetic, and environmental studies have gained more popularity and are presented in this paper.FindingsRobots can perform very useful and repetitive tasks in controlled environments. However, when the robots are required to handle the unstructured and changing environments, there is a need for more elaborate means to improve their performance. In this scenario, tactile sensors can play a major role. In the unstructured environments, the robots must be able to grasp objects (or tissues, in the case of medical robots) and move objects from one location to another.Originality/valueIn this work, the emphasis was on the most interesting and fast developing areas of the tactile sensors applications, including, medical, agriculture and food, grippers and manipulators design, prosthetic, and environmental studies.

Fabrication of a Capacitance-Based Tactile Sensor with Biomedical Applications

“…When lifting a fragile grasp or holding a soft tissue and in other precision tasks, primarily the fingertips are used for contact. The precision grasp has advantages such as enabling better control of contact force and motion of object, but it is also less stable than the power grasp [1][2][3] .…”

Orientation Detection of Sensed Objects using a Four Sensor Tactile System with Applications in Bio-Robotics

“…At the same time, the risk of accidental cutting of the surrounding veins or arteries that are embedded in the tissues can lead to serious complications. Due to these problems, the loss of tactile sensing has proven to be a serious issue and has been the target of extensive research [16][17][18][19][20] . Some of the main previous research activities on this topic are presented below.…”

Experimental and Theoretical Analysis of a Novel Flexible Membrane Tactile Sensor

“…Thus, the necessity to sense the contact-force and mechanical properties of objects such as stiffness has particular importance in medical applications of the robotic hand in general and the development of surgical robot or telesurgery systems. It has been demonstrated that automation technology with artificial sensory can assist surgeons in minimal access treatment by enabling the benefits of steady tool motion through difficult access [3,5,9] .…”