A tactile sensors array for biomedical applications

This paper describes a tactile sensor array for a typical biomedical applications. It is built on positioning a dedicated number of force sensors element which is based on Hall Effect devices. The whole sensing element were mounted on a polymer cylinder bases. Characterisation of the materials used has shown the feasibility of such tactile sensor element. The outputs signals issued from sensors are carried out to a low cost instrumentation amplifiers. After analog processing and filtering, the signals are sampled and digitalized by commercial data acquisition card interfaced to a PC. First calibration was performed for small stress in the linear region of the elastic material with a range smaller than 10 N for instance. For stress greater than 10 N and up to 50 N a routine is implemented regarding the nonlinear shape of the material for nonlinearity correction. Experimental results have been carried out for fingertips force grasping which highlight the easiness realization force sensor prototype.