Multifunctional smart tactile-image sensor with integrated arrays of strain and temperature sensors on single air-pressurized silicon diaphragm

Author(s):  
H. Takao ◽  
K. Sawada ◽  
M. Ishida
Author(s):  
Kouki UNNO ◽  
Kazuhiro SHIMONOMURA
Keyword(s):  

Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (18) ◽  
pp. 3933 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuhiro Shimonomura

A tactile image sensor employing a camera is capable of obtaining rich tactile information through image sequences with high spatial resolution. There have been many studies on the tactile image sensors from more than 30 years ago, and, recently, they have been applied in the field of robotics. Tactile image sensors can be classified into three typical categories according to the method of conversion from physical contact to light signals: Light conductive plate-based, marker displacement- based, and reflective membrane-based sensors. Other important elements of the sensor, such as the optical system, image sensor, and post-image analysis algorithm, have been developed. In this work, the literature is surveyed, and an overview of tactile image sensors employing a camera is provided with a focus on the sensing principle, typical design, and variation in the sensor configuration.


Sensors ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 870 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuang Xie ◽  
Albert Theuwissen

This paper analyzes and compensates for process and temperature dependency among a (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) CMOS image sensor (CIS) array. Both the analysis and compensation are supported with experimental results on the CIS’s dark current, dark signal non-uniformity (DSNU), and conversion gain (CG). To model and to compensate for process variations, process sensors based on pixel source follower (SF)’s transconductance gm,SF have been proposed to model and to be compared against the measurement results of SF gain ASF. In addition, ASF’s thermal dependency has been analyzed in detail. To provide thermal information required for temperature compensation, six scattered bipolar junction transistor (BJT)-based temperature sensors replace six image pixels inside the array. They are measured to have an untrimmed inaccuracy within ±0.5 ⁰C. Dark signal and CG’s thermal dependencies are compensated using the on-chip temperature sensors by at least 79% and 87%, respectively.


Proceedings ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 358
Author(s):  
Accel Abarca ◽  
Shuang Xie ◽  
Jules Markenhof ◽  
Albert Theuwissen

1990 ◽  
Vol 46 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-84
Author(s):  
Yoshio Shimizu ◽  
Kouichiro Toriumi ◽  
Tadashi Ishikawa ◽  
Kei Tanaka ◽  
Takao Furukawa ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kazuhiro Shimonomura ◽  
Tinghsuan Chang ◽  
Tomomi Murata

In the inspection work involving foodstuffs in food factories, there are cases where people not only visually inspect foodstuffs, but must also physically touch foodstuffs with their hands to find foreign or undesirable objects mixed in the product. To contribute to the automation of the inspection process, this paper proposes a method for detecting foreign objects in food based on differences in hardness using a camera-based tactile image sensor. Because the foreign objects to be detected are often small, the tactile sensor requires a high spatial resolution. In addition, inspection work in food factories requires a sufficient inspection speed. The proposed cylindrical tactile image sensor meets these requirements because it can efficiently acquire high-resolution tactile images with a camera mounted inside while rolling the cylindrical sensor surface over the target object. By analyzing the images obtained from the tactile image sensor, we detected the presence of foreign objects and their locations. By using a reflective membrane-type sensor surface with high sensitivity, small and hard foreign bodies of sub-millimeter size mixed in with soft food were successfully detected. The effectiveness of the proposed method was confirmed through experiments to detect shell fragments left on the surface of raw shrimp and bones left in fish fillets.


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