In recent years, with the development of science and technology, people have more imagination and expectation for the application scenarios of intelligent robots. Unlike the traditional industrial robots, the next generation of robots will be used in the fields of wearable devices, outer space exploration, and advanced medical testing. They rely on a variety of sensory sensing and analysis environments to have a human-like sense.
The tactile sensor is an important medium for the robot to sense the external environment, and it is extremely important for the robot to operate the target object correctly. Under the premise of flexible and free movement of the robot, the tactile sensor is required to accurately sense the external environment in order to achieve various precise operations on the target object.
So far, tactile sensing mechanism, tactile sensing materials, tactile information acquisition, tactile image recognition, and practical use of sensors have become the research hotspots of domestic and foreign scientific research teams.
As early as the 1970s, foreign robot research has become a hot spot, but the research of tactile sensing technology has just begun. At that time, the study of touch was limited to the contact with the object, the contact force, although there are some good ideas, but the development of the sensor is very small and the design is very simple.
In recent years, through the unremitting efforts of researchers at home and abroad, many new types of tactile sensors and tactile signal processing methods have been developed. In 2008, the research team at Kyoto University in Japan designed a piezoelectric three-dimensional force tactile sensor that was mounted on the dexterous finger end of the robot for surgery.
In 2009, researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Applied Materials in Germany developed an octopus underwater robot with a new haptic system that accurately senses the obstacles and completes the survey of the submarine environment.