@article{doi:10.1002/app.34790, author = {D'Amore, Alberto and De Maria, Giuseppe and Grassia, Luigi and Natale, Ciro and Pirozzi, Salvatore}, title = {Silicone-rubber-based tactile sensors for the measurement of normal and tangential components of the contact force}, journal = {Journal of Applied Polymer Science}, volume = {122}, number = {6}, pages = {3757-3769}, keywords = {rubber, sensors, silicones}, doi = {10.1002/app.34790}, url = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/app.34790}, eprint = {https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/app.34790}, abstract = {Abstract This article presents the developmental process of a new tactile sensor. The sensor was based on the use of light-emitting diode (LED) phototransistor couples and a silicone rubber layer positioned above the optoelectronics devices. The optoelectronic components were organized in a matrix structure. For each couple, the LED illuminated the reflective surface, which coincided with the bottom facet of the deformable layer. Practically, the deformable layer transduced an external force into a displacement variation of its bottom facet through its stiffness. An external force applied to the deformable layer produced local variations of the bottom surface of the elastic material, and the couples of optical devices measured the vertical deformations in a discrete number of points. In particular, these vertical displacements produced a variation of the reflected light intensity and, accordingly, of the photocurrent measured by the photodetector. The realized prototype was designed and optimized through finite element analysis. A calibration procedure is also presented, whose results demonstrate the ability of the sensor to reconstruct the contact point and also the normal and tangential components of the contact force. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011} }