Abstract
Tactile sensors are basically arrays of force sensors that are intended to emulate the skin in applications such as assistive robotics. Local electronics are usually implemented to reduce errors and interference caused by long wires. Realizations based on standard microcontrollers, Programmable Systems on Chip (PSoCs) and Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) have been proposed by the authors for the case of piezoresistive tactile sensors. The solution employing FPGAs is especially relevant since their performance is closer to that of Application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) than that of the other devices. This paper presents an implementation of such an idea for a specific sensor. For the purpose of comparison, the circuitry based on the other devices is also made for the same sensor. This paper discusses the implementation issues, provides details regarding the design of the hardware based on the three devices and compares them.
Highlights
Tactile sensors can be based on different principles, including capacitive, resistive or optical methods, and are oriented to a broad range of applications, for instance in assistive or industrial robotics or rehabilitation and medicine in general [1]
The comparison is to be taken as an approximation, since final performance depends on many factors, for instance the printed circuit board (PCB) technology, the encapsulation of integrated circuits and electronic components, or the specific device chosen for the electronics to be based on
They are connected to the same piezoresistive tactile sensor [20], the PSoC is not able to scan the whole array
Summary
Tactile sensors can be based on different principles, including capacitive, resistive or optical methods, and are oriented to a broad range of applications, for instance in assistive or industrial robotics or rehabilitation and medicine in general [1]. Tactels are read and processed sequentially, the response time is poor and slippage detection for a piezoresistive sensor with a high number of tactels is not feasible This approach allows the design to be updated, so the tasks to be carried out by the microcontroller can be changed by programming it again. The smart sensor obtained is compact and powerful in terms of real time processing capability This strategy was proposed by the authors in [14], where an implementation based on active integrators was proposed to cancel crosstalk and cope with large array signal conditioning. An implementation of this circuitry for a specific raw sensor is presented in this paper. The comparison is to be taken as an approximation, since final performance depends on many factors, for instance the PCB technology, the encapsulation of integrated circuits and electronic components, or the specific device chosen for the electronics to be based on
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
