Sensors & Hardware
How Force & Tactile Sensors Work — ATI, Bota, XELA
Force sensors give a robot arm its 'sense of the arm,' and tactile sensors give a robot hand its 'sense of the fingertips.' We trace the physics from strain gauges through three tactile-sensing approaches — piezoresistive, capacitive, and optical — and survey real products from ATI, Bota Systems, and XELA Robotics to Shadow Robot's prosthetic-style hand carrying 129 sensors, alongside the true story of the strain gauge's simultaneous invention in 1938.