A Large-area Tactile Sensor for Distributed Force Sensing Using Highly Sensitive Piezoresistive Sponge

Tactile sensing plays a critical role in enabling robots to interact safely with target objects in dynamic and unstructured environments. While various tactile sensors based on different sensing principles or different sensitive materials have been proposed, the development of flexible large-area tactile sensors for robots is still challenging. In this paper, a novel highly sensitive piezoresistive sponge based on multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and polyurethane (PU) sponge is fabricated for pressure sensing. The sensing behavior of the piezoresistive sponge was experimentally evaluated, showing high sensitivity and fast response. Based on the piezoresistive sponge, a flexible large-area tactile sensor is designed for distributed force detection with electrical resistance tomography technology. The sensing performance of the sensor is validated by touch location, sensitivity analysis, real-time touch discrimination, and touch modality recognition. The experimental results indicate that the sensor performs well in detecting the position and force of contact in a large area. The sensor’s performance shows promise in embodied tactile sensing and human–robot interaction.

I. Introduction

Tactile perception is crucial for robot physical interaction tasks [1] [2], primarily due to its ability to provide physical properties information of objects they interact with, which is not available through other sensing modalities [3] [4]. Therefore, tactile sensing has recently attracted much attention in the field of robotics [5] [6]. Various tactile sensors based on different sensing mechanisms and different sensing materials have been developed for robotic applications [7] [8] [9]. Although these tactile sensors have been successfully applied for some applications [10], most of them are limited to small-area robotic hands or fingers [11] [12].