Development of an endoscopic tactile sensor using PVDF films

Abstract

In this work, a prototype Polyvinylidene Fluoride (PVDF) tactile sensor for endoscopic application has been developed. The sensor aims to measure hardness, which is one of the information of tactile perceptions, of biomedical tissue. This sensor is composed of two PVDF films, a silicone cylindrical column, and an aluminum cylinder. And the classification of hardness is concerned with the ratio of these PVDF outputs. In this paper, two sensors are fabricated using two silicone cylindrical columns with different Young's modulus. The performance evaluation of each sensor is conducted using 6 silicone rubbers as measuring object. The experimental results correspond with the simplified theoretical analysis and the proposed sensor can distinguish a difference of elastic property.