A prototype for an image-based tactile sensor

A new tactile sensor which offers many advantages over existing tactile sensors including extremely high resolution, elimination of all wires from the touching surface, the ability to execute design tradeoffs between sensitivity and ruggedness, and availability of information about the shape of the object being touched is presented. The sensor consists of an optically sealed chamber with one side having a small elastic reflective surface. Inside the chamber is a light source and an optical random access memory (RAM) chip which receives the image of a grid pattern painted on the elastic reflective surface. A prototype was constructed using commercially available hardware.