An electronic fingerprint device based on spiral patterned tactile pixel array for augmented human-machine interactions.

Abstract

Human-machine interface (HMI) devices with tactile sensing capabilities can increase both the accuracy and diversity of interaction activities. To date, the high-accuracy extraction of slippage characteristics, including both direction and displacement, remains a key challenge in HMI devices. Herein, we propose an enhanced electronic fingerprint (E-fingerprint) device that can simultaneously detect normal force, slippage direction and displacement for effective and augmented human-robot interactions. This device consists of a force-sensitive unit and a pixel array with 12×12 tactile pixels distributed in Fermat spiral pattern inspired by sunflower seeds, which highly improves the accuracy of slippage direction and displacement to 0.85° and 0.091 mm, respectively. By applying this E-fingerprint in robotic manipulation, the detected slippage can be restricted within an ideal range. A demonstration of remote writing indicates its promising performances in complicated interactive tasks. This high-accuracy E-fingerprint not only enhances the reliability of human-robot interactions but also improves interaction accuracy.