Novel Structural Flexible Magnetic Tactile Sensors: Design, Numerical Studies and Tactile Recognition

Magnetic tactile sensors (MTSs) exhibit high sensitivity, flexibility, and ability to operate without direct contact, demonstrating outstanding performance in human-machine interaction and tactile feedback. However, the existing MTSs lack numerical models that can accurately calculate the force magnetic coupling. To address this limitation, this work introduces a FEA-based magnetic field calculation algorithm to calculate the change in magnetic flux density under compress process. Additionally, structural flexible magnetic tactile sensors (SFMTSs) are proposed, designed with zigzag-type and serpentine-type, that can improve the sensing sensitivity benefiting from the specific structure. The sensitivity of the optimal structure can reach 7.4908 Gs/N, representing a 19% improvement over conventional film-type MTSs without structural features. Furthermore, a neural network-based perception model is also developed to predict the position and magnitude of tactile signals (force or displacement). The proposed SFMTSs are anticipated to be applied to various high-sensitivity tactile perception scenarios, such as precision robotics, wearable technology, and medical diagnostics.