Abstract
The large expansion of the robotic field in the last decades has created a growing interest in the research and development of tactile sensing solutions for robot hand and body integration. Piezoresistive composites are one of the most widely employed materials for this purpose, combining simple and low cost preparation with high flexibility and conformability to surfaces, low power consumption, and the use of simple read-out electronics. This work provides a review on the different type of composite materials, classified according to the conduction mechanism and analyzing the physics behind it. In particular piezoresistors, strain gauges, percolative and quantum tunnelling devices are reviewed here, with a perspective overview on the most used filler types and polymeric matrices. A description of the state-of-the-art of the tactile sensor solutions from the point of view of the architecture, the design and the performance is also reviewed, with a perspective outlook on the main promising applications.
Highlights
Transferring the utilization of robots from the repetitive and limited tasks of the industrial environment to more complex operations for interacting with human beings has recently raised growing interest in both the research and applied technology fields
In order to reproduce human tactile sensing performances for fabricating sensor devices to be implemented in robot hands and bodies, several researchers have defined the guidelines and requirements which a robot tactile system has to satisfy for performing the basic in-hand manipulation tasks
In these review we investigate the functional materials and the tactile sensor devices, presented in literature, exploiting flexible composites with piezoresistive properties
Summary
Stefano Stassi 1,2,*, Valentina Cauda 1, Giancarlo Canavese 1 and Candido Fabrizio Pirri 2. Received: 2 January 2014; in revised form: 7 February 2014 / Accepted: 18 February 2014 /
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