A new multi-functional tactile sensing technique for simultaneous discrimination of material properties

For simultaneous discrimination of material properties, a new multi-functional tactile sensing technique for one tactile sensor which can obtain three tactile information, that is, contact force, temperature change and contact number per one tactile sensor in spite of mono-sensing device is proposed here. To the confirm proposed sensing technique, a pressure-conductive rubber tactile sensor with temperature dependency which compared with one of the minute sense receptor of the human skin was experimentally made. The ability of the sensor was tested an various contact conditions. As experimental results, the usefulness of the proposed multi-functional tactile sensing technique was confirmed.