TACTILE SENSORS AND SENSOR UNIT COMBINING THESE SENSOR

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a sensor unit combining tactile sensors capable of detecting the shape of a detecting object with a relatively simple constitution. SOLUTION: This sensor unit is provided with plural tactile sensors 2a to 2f and a signal processing means 52 for processing detecting signals of these tactile sensors 2a to 2f. The tactile sensors 2a to 2f are provided with an elastically deformable base member, a whisker 6 installed on the base member and a pair of strain gauges mutually substantially orthogonally arranged on the base member. The signal processing means 52 includes a deformation direction processing means 54 for determining the direction of elastic deformation of the wisker 6 by using detecting signals of the strain gauges of the tactile sensors 2a to 2f and a shape judging processing means 56 for judging the shape of the detecting object on the basis of deformation direction information on the whisker 6 found by the deformation direction processing means 54.