Flexible Multilayer Tactile Sensor on a Soft Robotic Fingertip

Tactile sensing is an integral aspect of interacting with our environment, where textural information can be essential to properly manipulate objects. Soft robotic fingers are compliant biomimetic solutions for upper-limb prosthesis. Therefore, adding tactile sensing capabilities such as texture discrimination on a soft robotic finger can create a compliant and precise prosthetic hand for an amputee. In this study, we emulate a human fingertip by incorporating a flexible, biomimetic, and multilayered tactile sensor into a soft robotic fingertip for a texture discrimination task where thirteen textures were passively palpated. The sensor was able to achieve a texture classification accuracy of 97.12% when the sensor output was neuromorphically encoded to mimic the receptors in human skin. This work is a step in the direction of a more human-like prosthetic hand to help enhance amputees' perception and interaction with their environment.