An Anthropomorphic Robotic Skin
Using Highly Twistable Tactile Sensing Array
Ming-Yuan Cheng, Chan-Mo Tsao and Yao-Joe Yang
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
Abstract—The development of an anthropomorphic robot
skin integrated with a large-area 16×16 highly-stretchable
tactile sensing arrays is presented in this paper.
Conventionally, the electrodes of flexible sensing array are
vulnerable under highly-deforming and stretching. To
address this problem, highly-stretchable spiral electrodes
were proposed and developed. The reliability of electrodes
or interconnects for flexible sensing arrays by this
approach. In addition, a novel method, which can be used
to fabricate an anthropomorphic skin, is proposed.
Polydimethylsiloxsane (PDMS) is employed as the skin
structure and conductive polymer is used as tactile sensing
material. The corresponding scanning circuit is also
designed and implemented. The electrical characteristic of
conductive polymer is measured, and the tactile images
induced by external applied pressure are successfully
captured.
Keywords- spiral electrodes; conductive polymer; tactile
sensing array; PDMS, flexible substrate
I. INTRODUCTION
Recently, the development of humanoid robots receives
significantly attention around the world. Intelligent sensing
capabilities, such as tactile, temperature, vision and auditory
senses, are crucial for ensuring effective and safe interactions
between robots and humans. Flexible artificial skins integrated
with tactile array sensing capability are essential for robots to
response when physical contact with humans/environment
occurs. MEMS micromachining techniques have been
proposed to realized tactile sensor arrays on silicon substrate
[1][2]. In general, silicon-based devices are too brittle to
sustain large deformation. Therefore, flexible substrates of
various polymer-based materials, such as polyester, parylene,
polyimide (PI), or polydimethlysiloxane (PDMS), were
proposed [4]-[10].
Capacitive and resistive sensing techniques are frequently
used for polymer-based tactile array sensors. The
implementation of capacitive sensing mechanisms [3]-[5] has
many advantages, such as linear response, immune to
temperature variation and highly repeatable response. In [3],
flexible capacitive sensor array consisting of interwoven
structures was proposed. The approach can be used to easily
realize highly-flexible sensing array, while they require special
metal deposition processes. In [4], Boie proposed a novel
capacitive tactile image sensor, which is a three-layer
sandwiched capacitance structure implemented on a flexible
printed circuit board (FPCB) substrate. Lee et al. [5] proposed
a modular expandable capacitive PDMS tactile sensor array
which has relatively good spatial resolution. Compared with
978-1-4244-5046-6/10/$26.00 2010
c IEEE
conductive polymer approaches, the capacitive sensing
approach has the advantage of highly repeatable response, and
is relatively robust. However, the capacitance tends to decrease
with physical size, and the output signal is usually small.
For the resistive sensing technique, there are two popular
sensing mechanisms: resistive metal-based mechanism [6]-[7]
and conductive-polymer-based mechanism [8]-[10]. In [6], a
flexible array of tactile sensors with piezoresistive vertical
cantilevers was presented. Engel et al. [7] created a flexible
substrate by spin-coating PI film on a glass wafer. Then
micromachining techniques were employed for depositing and
patterning piezoresistive metal layers for sensing the
deformation of micromachined sensing membranes. Theses
sensor arrays employing metal-based sensing elements usually
give good sensitivity and reliable response. However,
relatively complex micromachining processes are required to
fabricate sensing elements.
The typical approach to realize the conductive-polymer-
based mechanism is to sandwich conductive polymer materials,
such as conductive gel or conductive elastomer, by two flexible
sheets patterned with sensing electrodes [8]-[9]. Papakostas et
al. [8] proposed a large area force sensor by using Ag-filled
polymer and semi-conductive film. Also, Someya et al. [9]
fabricated flexible tactile and temperature sensing arrays using
organic materials. These sensor arrays provide good flexibility.
Also, the fabrication processes are relatively straightforward.
However, these approaches are likely to have crosstalks
between tactile sensing elements because the isolation between
each element is poor. In order to reduce the cross-talk problem,
Yang et al. [10] dispensed individual conductive polymer
bumps on pre-defined interdigital copper electrodes, and
showed that the electrical isolation between adjacent sensing
elements can be effectively achieved. These approaches are
very popular because the fabricated devices are quite durable
and manufacturable.
In those aforementioned approaches, the thin metal traces
(interconnects), which are essential for retrieving signals from
each sensing element, are usually quite vulnerable when they
are stretched to cover complex surfaces. As a result, many
recent research works [11]-[12] have been proposed to enhance
the reliability and durability of the traces on flexible substrate
under large deformation. Khang et al. [11] fabricated wavelike
conductors which can be safely stretched and compressed to
large levels of strain. Sekitani et al. [12] proposed a rubber-like
stretchable active matrix with elastic conductors using single-
walled carbon nanotubes composite film coated with PDMS
rubber.
In this work, we present an approach to realize a large-area
highly-twistable artificial skin by using spiral electrodes as
sensing electrodes and scanning traces. The proposed spiral
650
electrode is made by winding copper wires around an elastic
nylon line, and can be easily mass-produced. Also, a novel
method to fabricate a one-piece large-area sensing array has
been proposed. Each tactile sensing element is formed by
attaching conductive polymer on the spiral electrodes. The
electrical characteristic of the conductive polymer and the
performance of the sensing array will be measured and
discussed.
II. DESIGN
The schematic diagram of the proposed highly twistable
tactile sensing array is shown in Fig. 1. The integration of
flexible polymer-based substrate and stretchable interconnects
is the key to realize the highly-twistable tactile sensing array.
In the proposed skin, the spiral electrodes are used as
stretchable interconnects and sensing electrodes. Also,
conductive polymer and PDMS elastomer are employed as the
sensing material and the skin structure material, respectively.
Tactile sensing
element
Conductive
polymer
PDMS
Lower spiral Upper spiral
electrodes electrodes
Fig. 1 The schematic of the proposed tactile sensing array.
Spiral
electrodes
Tactile
sensing
elements
PDMS Conductive
substrate polymer
Fig. 2 The schematic of the proposed skin with an arm shape.
In Fig 1, the upper spiral electrodes and the lower spiral
electrodes are aligned perpendicularly without contacting each
other. The sensing element, which is in fact a deformable
resistor, is formed by attaching conductive polymer bump
between two spiral electrodes by using conductive graphite.
The conductive polymer is made by mixing PDMS prepolymer
with conductive-particles, such as silver or carbon particles.
2010 5th IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applicationsis
Without external force, the conductive polymer behaves almost
like an insulator. As an external force is applied, the
conductive polymer deforms and the resistance between the
metal wires (i.e., spiral electrodes) decreases so that the
pressure can be detected. The physics of this electrical
resistivity phenomenon can be found in [13]. Fig. 2 shows the
schematic of the proposed skin with an arm shape.
The stretchable interconnect can withstand high
deformation or twisting. Therefore, the proposed skin can
conform to very complex surfaces without damaging the metal
interconnects on the sensing array. In order to make the
conductive wires highly extendable and flexible, copper wires
of 0.25mm in diameter are wound to a soft elastic nylon line of
0.3mm in diameter, as shown in Fig. 3.
Extendable state Applied
Force
Applied
Force
Fig. 3 The schematic diagram of stretchable spiral electrode
without and with applied pressure.
III. FABRICATION
A. Spiral Electrode and Conductive Polymer
Fig. 4 shows the manufacturing process of conductive
polymer. The conductive polymer material is formed by
introducing nano carbon black (QF-PHG-1P, Yong-Zhen Tech.
Co., Ltd), nano silver powder (QF-NAg-25, Yong-Zhen Tech.
Co., Ltd), and copper powder (7440-50-8, Acros Organics Co.,
Ltd) into PDMS prepolymer. Cyclohexane is employed as the
dispersant for increasing the fluidity of the PDMS prepolymer
and improving the mixture uniformity during the blending
procedure. After the conductive particles are stirred for 30
minutes, the mixture is introduced into PDMS prepolymer and
PDMS curing agent. The mixture is then stirred for another 30
minutes. Finally, the mixture is degassed in a vacuum chamber
for 30 minutes to evaporate the volatile cyclohexane, and the
mixed conductive polymer is ready for being dispensed as the
sensing elements. Note that an automatic stirrer (DC-2E,
Trendtop Scientific Corp.) is used for the blending (stirring)
processes. The sizes of these conductive particles as well as
their corresponding weight percentages in the mixture are listed
in Table 1.
The schematic and picture of the winding machine for
fabricating the spiral electrode are shown in Fig. 5, respectively.
Firstly, both ends of the nylon line are fixed on the fixtures of
Stepper-Motor-I (SM-I) and Step-Motor-II (SM-II). Also, one
end of the copper wire is fixed on the fixtures of SM-I. During
the winding process, SM-I and SM-II operate synchronously,
and the copper-wire reel is laterally shifted by Stepper-Motor-
III, which is used to control the helix pitch distance of spiral
copper wire on the nylon line. Note that the throughput of this
winding machine is 50 mm/sec, and can be easily increased if
high-performance motors and mechanical parts are used.
651
 STEPPER MOTOR-III

Copper powder Carbon black Silver powder Cyclohexane Reel

Copper Wire

Mixing / Dispersing (30 min.) STEPPER Spiral STEPPER

MOTOR-II electrode Nylon line
MOTOR-I

Fixture Fixture

Conductive Fig. 5 Schematic of the winding machine for fabricating the

PDMS prepolymer PDMS curing agent
particle mixture spiral electrodes.

Mixing / Stirring(30 min.) B. Sensor Array

Fig. 6 shows the fabrication process of the proposed tactile
sensing array. Firstly, in Fig. 6(a), the PMMA inner mold is
fabricated by using a 3D milling machine (MDX-40R, Roland
Corp.). Then, the spiral electrodes are placed to the PMMA
inner mold as the row interconnects (Fig. 6(b)). The
conductive polymer bumps are formed by punching the cured
conductive polymer sheet using a seamless steel tube. As
Raw conductive polymer shown in Fig. 6(c), the conductive polymer bump is attached to
the row spiral electrodes by using conductive graphite (16053
Degassing / Volatilizing conductive graphite, Pentad Scientific Corp.). In addition, the
(30 min.) spiral electrodes are aligned perpendicularly with row spiral
electrode as the column interconnects (Fig. 6(d)). Conductive
graphite is adhered on conductive polymer bump again to
ensure the electrical connection between the conductive
polymer and the spiral electrodes. After conductive graphite
being cured at 24°C for 60 min, the assembled structure is
placed into a PMMA outer mold. Then, PDMS prepolymer
and curing agent (Sylgard® 184, Dow Corning Corp.) are
Conductive polymer mixed at 10:1 ratio. After stirred thoroughly and degassed in a
vacuum chamber, the prepared PDMS mixture is poured into
Fig. 4 The steps of manufacturing conductive polymer. the gap between the inner mold and outer mold (Fig. 6(e)).
Also, the PMMA outer mold is fabricated by using a 3D
milling machine.
Table 1. The detailed ingredients of conductive polymer and
The thickness of the sensing array can be controlled by
the average sizes of conductive particles. replacing outer mold. Then the whole device is degassed in a
vacuum chamber for 30 minutes to ensure PDMS prepolymer
Conductive particles Average size Weight percentage will completely fill the gap between the inner and the outer
PMMA mold. After the whole device is cured at 90°C for 120
Copper particle 50 μm 13.5 % min, the polymerized PDMS structure is removed from the
outer PMMA mold (Fig. 6(f)). Finally, the inner mold is
removed and the large-area sensing array is obtained (Fig.
Carbon black 0.035 μm 22.5 %
6(g)). Fig. 7(a) and 7(b) show the pictures of the front view
and the back view of the fabricated large-area 16×16 sensing
Silver powder 0.025 μm 4.5 % array with arm shape, respectively. Fig. 7(c) shows the picture
of the fabricated skin which is embedded on a model’s arm.
PDMS polymer 59.5 %

652 2010 5th IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applicationsis

 PMMA respectively. (c) The picture of the fabricated skin which is
inner mold embedded on a model’s arm.

IV. MEASUREMENT AND DISCUSSION

PMMA The measurement setup for characterizing tactile sensing
inner PMMA element can be found in [14]. The measured relationship of
mold outer electrical resistance vs. applied pressure for tactile sensing
mold elements is shown in Fig. 8. Each data point in the figure is the
(a) (e) average result by measuring one sample sheet 10 times at a
specific applied pressure. The error bars indicate the measured
PMMA maximum and minimum values. The resistance of the
inner
mold
conductive polymer converges to a steady value as the applied
PDMS pressure is greater than 450kPa.
Fig. 9 shows the system which includes a sensing array, a
PMMA scanning circuitry, and personal computer. For row scanning, a
inner
mold set of multiplexers provides the driving power to sensing
Row elements. For column scanning, another set of multiplexers is
spiral used to receive the data outputs from each sensor.
electrodes (b) (f)

Tactile 8
10
Conductive sensing

Electrical Resistance (ȍ)

polymer element 10
7

bump
6
10
5
10

104
(c) (g)
3
10
Column 0 150 300 450 600 750
spiral Pressure(kPa)
:PMMA inner mold
electrodes
:PMMA external mold Fig. 8. Measured response of the fabricated tactile sensing
:Spiral electrodes element with different applied pressure.
:Conductive polymer
A constant voltage (5V) is supplied, and the change of the
:PDMS
current flowing through the resistor can be detected by the
current-to-voltage converter, as shown in the figure. The
(d) scanned output voltages of tactile sensing arrays are transferred
to analog-to-digital converter (ADC) of a MCU. The
Fig. 6 Fabrication process of the large-area tactile sensing maximum scanning rate is greater than 3,000 elements per
array. second. ADuC841 (Analog Devices®) is used as the controller
for the scanning circuit. The built-in analog-to-digital
converter is 12-bit. Two ADG608 are employed as the
4cm

row/column electrode select multiplexers, and four OP471 are

used for current-to-voltage converting. The average power
consumption of sensing array system is 480mW.
Fig. 10 shows the measured pressure distributions by using
external applied pressure on the proposed 16×16 sensing array.
The pictures of experiment setup are also shown in the figure.
Obviously, these pressure mapping images are clearly resolved
by the sensing array.

(a) (b) (c)

Fig. 7 (a) and (b) The front view and the back view of the
fabricated large-area sensing array with arm shape,

2010 5th IEEE Conference on Industrial Electronics and Applicationsis 653

 R01 V. CONCLUSIONS
R02 The development of a large-area 16×16 tactile sensing array
was presented in the paper. Extendable spiral electrodes were
employed as elastic interconnects of sensing array so that it can
Row- Electrode Select

Tactile

Column-Electrode
withstand significant deformation without damaging the
Multiplexers

Sensing sensing array. The tactile sensing elements were formed by

Array attaching conductive polymer on the spiral electrodes. In
addition, a novel method to fabricate a large-area sensing array
has also been proposed. The characteristic of the sensing
R15 element was measured and discussed. The corresponding
scanning circuit for the sensing array was designed and
R16
implemented. By using the fabricated 16×16 sensing array,
Row-Electrode
tactile images induced by external applied pressure were
demonstrated.
C02

C15

C16
C01

The current to
voltage converter
MCU
with ADC ACKNOWLEDGMENT
Column- Electrode
Select Multiplexers This work was supported in part by the National Science
Council, Taiwan, R.O.C. (Contract No: NSC 97-2628-E-002 -
049-MY3). The authors would like to thank Mr. Cheng-Wen
PC
RS-232 Sensing Request
Ma for help on the device packaging.
and Data Viewing

Fig. 9 Schematic of the sensing-array system. REFERENCES

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