CIE, Microelectronics, DPCS and Bioengineering

Abstract

Fingerprints are effective in enhancing discrimination proficiency for both human and artificial hands. They play an important role in coding of tactile information that results in increasing the sensitivity for vibration and slippage related grasping tasks. In this study, we explore the effect of artificial ridges on point indentation for local shape discrimination. Two ridged structures are proposed and their performances are compared to a flat skin structure through static indentation experiments, which are performed at three different positions relative to the underlying sensor. In addition, Finite Element Analysis on each of the loading cases for the three different covering geometries is performed, and the results obtained confirm the experimental observations. An improvement in the sensitivity of embedded tactile sensors is observed by adding ridges to the skin covers.