Fabrication and Evaluation of Catheter-Type Tactile Sensor Composed of Two Polyvinylidene Fluoride Films

To enable quantitative palpation in vivo, we developed a catheter-type tactile sensor composed of two polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) films for minimally invasive surgery. In our previous study, we fabricated a prototype catheter-type tactile sensor composed of a PVDF film with an outer diameter of 2 mm. However, this sensor can detect only a uniaxial contact state. In this study, we added a piezoelectric film embedded in silicone rubber to allow the sensor to detect a biaxial contact state. We evaluated the frequency responses of the proposed sensors.