Tactile sensor
Uses
Uses
----

Tactile sensors appear in everyday life such as elevator buttons and lamps which dim or brighten by touching the base. There are also innumerable other applications for tactile sensors of which most people are never aware.

Sensors that measure very small changes must have very high sensitivities. Sensors need to be designed to have a small effect on what is measured; making the sensor smaller often improves this and may introduce other advantages. Tactile sensors can be used to test the performance of all types of applications. For example, these sensors have been used in the [manufacturing](/wiki/Manufacturing "Manufacturing") of [automobiles](/wiki/Automobiles "Automobiles") (brakes, clutches, door seals, [gasket](/wiki/Gasket "Gasket")), [battery](/wiki/Battery_%28electricity%29 "Battery (electricity)") lamination, bolted joints, [fuel cells](/wiki/Fuel_cell "Fuel cell") etc.

[Tactile imaging](/wiki/Tactile_imaging "Tactile imaging"), as a medical imaging modality, translating the sense of touch into a digital image is based on the tactile sensors. Tactile imaging closely mimics manual palpation, since the probe of the device with a pressure [sensor array](/wiki/Sensor_array "Sensor array") mounted on its face acts similar to human fingers during clinical examination, deforming soft tissue by the probe and detecting resulting changes in the pressure pattern.

[Robots](/wiki/Robot "Robot") designed to interact with objects requiring handling involving precision, [dexterity](/wiki/Dexterity "Dexterity"), or interaction with unusual objects, need sensory apparatus which is functionally equivalent to a human's tactile ability. Tactile sensors have been developed for use with robots. Tactile sensors can complement visual systems by providing added information when the robot begins to grip an object. At this time vision is no longer sufficient, as the mechanical properties of the object cannot be determined by vision alone. Determining weight, texture, [stiffness](/wiki/Stiffness "Stiffness"), [center of mass](/wiki/Center_of_mass "Center of mass"), [coefficient of friction](/wiki/Coefficient_of_friction "Coefficient of friction"), and [thermal conductivity](/wiki/Thermal_conductivity "Thermal conductivity") require object interaction and some sort of tactile sensing.

Several classes of tactile sensors are used in robots of different kinds, for tasks spanning collision avoidance and manipulation. Some methods for [simultaneous localization and mapping](/wiki/Simultaneous_localization_and_mapping "Simultaneous localization and mapping") are based on tactile sensors.Fox, Charles, et al. "[Tactile SLAM with a biomimetic whiskered robot](http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/108430/1/fox_icra12.pdf)." 2012 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation. IEEE, 2012\.


What classes of tactile sensors are used in different kinds of robots?