2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

Soft artificial fingertip with Hall elements as a pressure-temperature sensitive device embedded in elastic material

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23700223
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	Perception information processing/Intelligent robotics
Research Institution	National Institute of Technology, Kumamoto College
Principal Investigator	YUJI Junichiro 熊本高等専門学校, 機械知能システム工学科, 准教授 (80332104)
Project Period (FY)	2011 – 2013
Keywords	触覚センサ / 皮膚感覚 / 人工指 / ホール素子
Research Abstract	A magnetic multifunctional tactile sensing method with Indium antimonide (InSb) Hall elements for artificial fingertip to detect simultaneously normal contact force and temperature was investigated. A trial artificial fingertip consists of Hall elements and a magnet that are embedded in a silicone rubber. The temperature characteristic of InSb Hall elements depends on the bias circuit to generate the Hall voltage. Two output Hall voltages driven by two kinds of bias circuits are used to formulate the inverse response surface. This inverse response surface detected the normal contact force and the temperature by using only two Hall voltages.