Robotic tactile sensor array fabricated from a piezoelectric polyvinylidene fluoride film

Abstract

A robotic tactile sensor comprised of 25 discrete sensor electrodes arranged in a 5*5 grid was designed and fabricated from a piezoelectric polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film coupled to an integrated circuit (IC). Each of the 25 sensing electrodes in the IC grid were connected to metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) amplifiers which provided sufficient gain to generate usable response signal levels. Sensors fabricated from varying thicknesses of PVDF film are evaluated. The sensor based on the 25- mu m-thick PVDF film was considered to be the optimal sensor configuration, based on its bias-time performance and its linear response over the loading range tested (0/8 to 76.0 grams). There was no detectable coupling between the nearest-neighbor sensing elements in any of the sensor configurations. As a demonstration, the optimal sensor configuration is used to recognize a toroidal-shaped load. >