An Integrated Smart Tactile Sensor For 2-Axis Robot Grippers

Abstract

A smart rotational tactile sensor was designed and developed for use with a 2-axis robot gripper. The structure and performance of the tactile sensor/gripper is described. The tactile sensor forms one pad of the gripper and is free to rotate by virtue of using an optical technique for recording the tactile images. This arrangement permits monitoring of the workpiece position, orientation and possibly slippage when the workpiece is being rotated by the gripper pads. The application of a smart photodiode array and the method of SHADOWing to the processing of the tactile images is also considered.