A Biomimetic Tactile Palm for Robotic Object Manipulation

Tactile sensing plays a vital role for human hand function in terms of object exploration, grasping and manipulation. Different types of tactile sensors have been designed during the past decades, which are mainly focused on either the fingertips for grasping or the upper-body for human-robot interaction. In this letter, a novel soft tactile sensor has been designed to mimic the functionality of human palm that can estimate the contact state of different objects. The tactile palm mainly consists of three parts including an electrode array, a soft cover skin and the liquid resistance between them. The design principle and the fabrication process are described in details, with a number of experiments showcasing the effectiveness of the proposed design.