title: Flexible three-axial force sensor for soft and highly sensitive artificial touch.
abstract: A soft tactile sensor able to detect both normal and tangential forces is fabricated with a simple method using conductive textile. Owing to the multi-layered architecture, the capacitive-based tactile sensor is highly sensitive (less than 10 mg and 8 μm, for minimal detectable weight and displacement, respectively) within a wide normal force range (potentially up to 27 N (400 kPa)) and natural touch-like tangential force ranges (from about 0.5 N to 1.8 N). Being flexible, soft, and low cost, this sensor represents an original approach in the emulation of natural touch.
authors.affiliation: Center for Micro-BioRobotics, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34, 56025, Pontedera, PI, Italy.
authors.forename: Lucie
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Viry
authors.forename: Alessandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Levi
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Totaro
authors.forename: Alessio
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mondini
authors.forename: Virgilio
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Mattoli
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Mazzolai
authors.forename: Lucia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Beccai
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D040761:Biomimetic Materials / Q000737:chemistry*; D032701:Biomimetics / Q000295:instrumentation*; D004553:Electric Conductivity; D004566:Electrodes; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D006244:Hardness; D006801:Humans; D008365:Manometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008904:Miniaturization; D011312:Pressure; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D014110:Touch; D014159:Transducers
keywords: artificial touch; conductive textile; soft tactile sensor; three-axis force; wearable electronics