Abstract: Tactile and slip sensors have gained tremendous attention for their promising applications in the fields of smart robotics, implantable medical devices and minimally invasive surgery. Inspired by the structure-enhanced sensing mechanisms of human fingertips and tree frog toes, we developed a tactile and slip sensor by combining biomimetic surface microstructures with highly sensitive P(VDF-TrFE) nano-fiber sensors on a flexible polyimide substrate. As the surface microstructures could mediate the micro-vibration induced by slip motion, the frequencies of output signals revealed a strong correlation with the periods of microstructures. In addition, we proposed a method to discriminate touch force from slip motion using the criterion of standard deviation of time delay from the output signals of neighboring sensor elements.

Key words: tactile sensor, slip detection, nanofiber, microstructure, biomimetic sensing