High-Accuracy Readout Electronics for Piezoresistive Tactile Sensors

Abstract

The typical layout in a piezoresistive tactile sensor arranges individual sensors to form an array with <i>M</i> rows and <i>N</i> columns. While this layout reduces the wiring involved, it does not allow the values of the sensor resistors to be measured individually due to the appearance of crosstalk caused by the nonidealities of the array reading circuits. In this paper, two reading methods that minimize errors resulting from this phenomenon are assessed by designing an electronic system for array reading, and the results are compared to those obtained using the traditional method, obviating the nonidealities of the reading circuit. The different models were compared by testing the system with an array of discrete resistors. The system was later connected to a tactile sensor with 8 × 7 taxels.