Advances in tactile sensors design/manufacturing and its impact on robotics applications – a review

Abstract

Purpose – Reviews the benefits and potential application of tactile sensors for use with robots.Design/methodology/approach – Includes the most recent advances in both the design/manufacturing of various tactile sensors and their applications in different industries. Although these types of sensors have been adopted in a considerable number of areas, the applications such as, medical, agricultural/livestock and food, grippers/manipulators design, prosthetic, and environmental studies have gained more popularity and are presented in this paper.Findings – Robots can perform very useful and repetitive tasks in controlled environments. However, when the robots are required to handle the unstructured and changing environments, there is a need for more elaborate means to improve their performance. In this scenario, tactile sensors can play a major role. In the unstructured environments, the robots must be able to grasp objects (or tissues, in the case of medical robots) and move objects from one location to ano...