Capacitive-Piezoelectric Tandem Architecture for Biomimetic Tactile Sensing in Prosthetic Hand

This paper presents our work on the development of a biomimetic tactile sensor and its integration with a 3D-printed prosthetic limb. Human tactile sensing involves sensing and processing of both static and dynamic stimuli. Here, a novel capacitive architecture in tandem with a piezoelectric structure has been used for achieving static and dynamic tactile sensing. Result of the capacitive sensing structure's characteristics was found to be non-linear varying from high sensitivity of 0.25 kPa -1 in low pressure range(<;100 Pa) to 0.002 kPa -1 in high pressure. The piezoelectric sensing structure exhibited a sensitivity of 2.28 kPa -1 . Readout and wireless communication of the tactile data was carried out to display in a mobile app which also performs processing of myoelectric signal to control the prosthesis