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Abstract

This article describes a skin-like tactile sensor system that can detect a distributed force using microbending optical fiber sensors. In this design, optical fibers are used both as actual force elements and as signal-transmission media. The tactile array sensor is formed by appropriately arranging fibers into two overlapping layers, forming a 2D grid of fibers. When force is imparted to a given fiber taxel, small distortions (microbends) appear in the stressed fibers, resulting in decreases in the transmitted light intensity in these fibers. A prototype sensor of this type has been fabricated and tested. Comparison with a conventional tactile sensor reveals that the proposed tactile sensor provides outstanding performance and many advantages such as water resistive characteristics, high durability, and simple wiring.

Keywords

artificial skin microbending optical fiber sensor tactile sensor uniaxial force sensor array.

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References

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Development of a Distributed Force Detectable Artificial Skin Using Microbending Optical Fiber Sensors

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