Replication of the human sense of touch would be highly advantageous for robots or prostheses as it would allow an agile and dexterous interaction with the environment. The article presents an approach for the integration of a micro-electromechanical system sensing skin with 144 tactile sensors on a soft, human-sized artificial fingertip. The sensing technology consists of thin, 1D sensing strips which are wrapped around the soft and curved fingertip. The sensing strips include 0.5 mm diameter capacitive sensors which measure touch, vibrations, and strain at a resolution of 1 sensor/mm2. The method allows to leverage the advantages of sensing skins over other tactile sensing technologies while showing a solution to integrate such skins on a soft three-dimensional body. The adaptable sensing characteristics are dominated by the thickness of a spray coated silicone layer, encapsulating the sensors in a sturdy material. We characterized the static and dynamic sensing capabilities of the encapsulated taxels up to skin thicknesses of 600 μm. Taxels with 600 μm skin layers have a sensitivity of 6 fF/mN, corresponding to an ∼5 times higher sensitivity than a human finger if combined with the developed electronics. They can detect vibrations in the full tested range of 0-600 Hz. The softness of a human finger was measured to build an artificial sensing finger of similar conformity. Miniaturized readout electronics allow the readout of the full finger with 220 Hz, which enables the observation of touch and slipping events on the artificial finger, as well as the estimation of the contact force. Slipping events can be observed as vibrations registered by single sensors, whereas the contact force can be extracted by averaging sensor array readouts. We verified the sturdiness of the sensing technology by testing single coated sensors on a chip, as well as the completely integrated sensing fingertip by applying 15 N for 10,000 times. Qualitative datasets show the response of the fingertip to the touch of various objects. The focus of this article is the development of the sensing hardware and the basic characterization of the sensing performance.

中文翻译：

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具有嵌入式光纤形状传感阵列的人造指尖，用于高分辨率触觉传感。


复制人类的触觉对于机器人或假肢来说非常有利，因为它可以与环境进行敏捷而灵巧的交互。本文提出了一种将微机电系统传感皮肤与柔软的人体大小的人造指尖上的 144 个触觉传感器集成的方法。传感技术由薄的一维传感条组成，这些传感条缠绕在柔软弯曲的指尖上。传感带包括直径 0.5 毫米的电容式传感器，以 1 传感器/mm2 的分辨率测量触摸、振动和应变。该方法可以利用传感皮肤相对于其他触觉传感技术的优势，同时展示将此类皮肤集成到柔软的三维物体上的解决方案。适应性强的传感特性主要取决于喷涂硅胶层的厚度，将传感器封装在坚固的材料中。我们对表皮厚度达 600 μm 的封装紫杉醇的静态和动态传感能力进行了表征。具有 600 μm 皮肤层的紫杉醇的灵敏度为 6 fF/mN，如果与开发的电子设备结合使用，相当于比人手指高约 5 倍的灵敏度。它们可以检测 0-600 Hz 整个测试范围内的振动。测量人类手指的柔软度，以构建具有类似一致性的人工传感手指。微型读出电子设备可以以 220 Hz 的频率读出整个手指，从而能够观察人造手指上的触摸和滑动事件，以及估计接触力。滑动事件可以通过单个传感器记录的振动来观察，而接触力可以通过平均传感器阵列读数来提取。 我们通过测试芯片上的单涂层传感器以及通过施加 15 N 10,000 次的完全集成传感指尖来验证传感技术的坚固性。定性数据集显示指尖对各种物体的触摸的响应。本文的重点是传感硬件的开发和传感性能的基本表征。