537 Mechanical model of fabric tactile sensor and its evaluation for force detection

We previously proposed the novel type of the fabric tactile sensor produced by weaving the artificial hollow fibers. We this time constructed the theoretical fiber deformation model in the fabric tactile sensor. We at first conducted the deformation model of the single and crossed hollow fibers by applying the material mechanics, and also constructed the model showing how the contact area (sensor output) changes with the changes of the applied load or the fiber deformation. We then verified the conducted mode by the experiments, in which we used five different sized hollow fibers. The conducted fiber deformation model adequately agreed with the experimental results. The hollow fiber linearly deformed with the increase of the applied loads in the both conditions, and the spring constant linearly depended on the third power of the ratio between the thickness and the radius. We finally developed the glove-type of the tactile sensor, and experimentally evaluated its performance.