Design of a modular tactile sensor and actuator based on an electrorheological gel

We present the design of a modular tactile sensor and actuator system for observing human demonstrations of contact tasks. The system consists of three interchangeable parts: an intrinsic tactile sensor for measuring net force/torque, an extrinsic tactile sensor for measuring contact distributions, and a tactile actuator for displaying tactile distributions. The novel components are the extrinsic sensor and tactile actuator which are "inside-out symmetric" to each other and employ an electrorheological gel for actuation.