| Research Abstract |
As a tactile sensing system applying to robot-hands for discrimination of material properties, we proposed a new thin plate touch sensor system. This sensor system is unique in the point of combination of two different multi-functional sensors each of which is a mono-structure with two compound sensing functions each other. One of them is a mono-material pressure-conductive rubber sensor with temperature sensitivity and the other is a comb shaped mono-structural thin plate touch sensor with capacitive-inductive function.
Using this sensor system, four kinds of properties in a material, that is, the hardness, the thermal property of material like the palm of human hand, and in addition, two electrical properties, such as permitivity and permeability of a material, were measured. The experimental results in each sensing device for discrimination of material properties were good for three kinds of materials, such as aluminum, acrylic resin and silicon rubber and also for eight kinds of well-known materials, such as iron, aluminum, copper, bronze, gum, wood, acrylic resin and styrene foam, respectively.
Using these results as the reference, the possibility of discrimination of an unknown material for the method of pattern recognition and then the realization of an artificial material recognition system as the substitution of tactile sensing function of the human skin are expected in future
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