Bio-Inspired Multiple Tactile Sensing System for Simultaneous and Real-Time Perception

A human can intuitively perceive and comprehend complicated tactile information. Because the cutaneous receptors distributed in the fingertip skin receive different tactile stimuli simultaneously, and the tactile signals are immediately transmitted to the brain. Although many research groups have attempted to mimic the structure and the function of human skin, it remains a challenge to implement human-like tactile perception process within one system.<br/>In this work, we developed a real-time and multimodal tactile sensing system, mimicking the function of cutaneous receptors and the transmission of tactile signals from receptors to the brain, by using multiple sensors, a signal processing and transmission circuit module and a signal analysis module. The proposed system is capable of simultaneously acquiring four types of decoupled tactile information within a compact system, thereby enabling differentiation between various tactile stimuli, texture characteristics, and consecutive complex motions. This skin-like three dimensional integrated design provides further opportunities in multimodal tactile sensing systems.