Flexible full‐body tactile sensor of low cost and minimal output connections for service robot

Purpose – This paper aims to design a new full‐body tactile sensor which is essential for the application of personal service robot similar to human skin. Design/methodology/approach – The largest difficulty for designing a full‐body tactile sensor is the huge number of output connections. The sensor introduced in this paper is a special multi‐layer structure, which could minimize the output connections while sensing both the position and force information. Since it is made of conductive and non‐conductive textiles, the sensor could be used to cover the curved surface of robot body. Findings – With better structure design, output connectors and signal measurement times could be dramatically reduced. Research limitations/implications – Sensor area and performance are limited by the sensitivity of the measurement circuits. Originality/value – Introduces an innovate design of full‐body tactile sensor.