Detection of surface texture with an artificial tactile sensor

Animals, e.g., rodents can detect multiple information with their vibrissae. Among other things, the vibrissae can be used to detect information about a surface texture by a tactile stimuli. Inspired by the natural example of mystacial vibrissae, an artificial tactile sensor is designed. To identify the relation between measured signal and surface texture, a simulation respecting a quasi-static sensor displacement is performed. The sensor is modeled as an one-side clamped Euler-Bernoulli whose surface contact is described within the limits of Coulomb’s law of friction. Gathering the support reactions, the friction coefficient between beam and surface can be determined. The theoretical model is verified by an experiment.