An integrated tactile-thermal robot sensor with capacitive tactile array

A capacitive tactile sensor and a thermal sensor that can be combined into one compact device with both modalities are illustrated. The tactile sensing portion is composed of an 8 /spl times/ 8 array of capacitive cells. By using as thermoresistors the rows' traces of the matrix of the capacitive tactile array sensor thermal sensing is obtained. This allows the detection of the gradient of the temperature. A prototype of the new sensor, which has been developed, is briefly illustrated and the so-obtained results are shortly discussed. On account of the simplicity and cheapness of the integrated sensor as well as its high linearity and sensitivity, it appears to be useful for the robots of future generations.