Measurement of Tactile Sensation Using Sensor System for Collecting Tactile Information

Abstract

This paper presents the measurement of tactile sensation using a sensor system for collecting tactile information. First, various tactile feelings of fabrics are collected through a questionnaire based on the paired comparison semantic differential method. Furthermore, the factor analysis is introduced to evaluate and classify the feelings. Next, an active sensing system using the piezoelectric effect and the pyroelectric effect of a PVDF (Polyvinylidene Fluoride) film is assembled. The sensor is made of a PVDF film and a soft rubber. The surface of the sensor can be heated through temperature control. The sensor is attached on the tip of a robot finger driven by a piezoelectric bimorph strip and the root of the finger is mounted on a linear slider. Two kinds of active sensing, contact and slide, are introduced to collect the information on tactile warmth and feelings of vibration, respectively. Measurement using the sensor system is carried out on the sample fabrics. Features on the collected data are extracted as the sensor outputs for the evaluation of tactile sensation. Comparison of the results shows that the sensor system well describes human tactile perception.