M3D-skin: Design and Applications of Multi-material 3D-printed Tactile Sensors with Hierarchical Infill Structures

Shunnosuke Yoshimura, Kento Kawaharazuka, Kei OKADA

Keywords: Tactile sensor, 3D printing, Multi-material fabrication

TL;DR: We propose M3D-skin, a 3D-printed tactile sensor utilizing infill patterns, enabling simple fabrication and easy integration.

Abstract: The applicability of tactile sensors can be significantly broadened if they can be fabricated easily in diverse shapes. To address this challenge, we propose M3D-skin, a tactile sensor that leverages the infill patterns of layered 3D printing as the sensing principle, enabling simple fabrication in arbitrary shapes. Our approach employs flexible conductive and non-conductive filaments to form hierarchical structures defined by specific infill patterns. These flexible hierarchical structures deform under pressure, resulting in resistance changes that allow the acquisition of tactile information. We evaluate the fundamental characteristics of the proposed sensor and further demonstrate applications by integrating it with a robotic hand to enable tactile-based actions. Through these experiments, we show the effectiveness of the proposed tactile sensor.

Submission Number: 20