THE
FUTURE OF
MACHINETOUCH

BIOMIMETIC BY DESIGNTHE BIOTAC®

As robots are increasingly expected to replicate and replace human behavior,
they must increasingly behave like humans. At SynTouch, we believe that suchbiomimetic goals are best facilitated by biomimetic systems.
In developing the BioTac, SynTouch engineers recognized the elegant andeffective design of the human fingertip and have crafted a sensor after it. The
BioTac is capable of sensing the full range of forces, vibrations, andtemperature that humans can perceive. Biomimetic features such as
fingerprints, fingernails, and even heat generation improve the sensitivity andfunctionality of the device. This places the BioTac in a class of its own forhuman-like tactile sensing.

FORCESCHEMATIC

Contact forces distort the elastic skin and underlying
conductive liquid, changing the impedances of electrodes
distributed over the surface of the rigid core

VIBRATION
The BioTac consists of a rigid bone-like core covered by areplaceable elastic skin.

SPECIFICATIONS

Vibrations in the skin propagate through the fluid
and are detected by the pressure sensorTEMPERATURE

Temperature and heat flow are transduced by athermistor near the surface of the rigid core

RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONSPERCEPTION
The ability to identify objects by touch is one of thecore functions of human tactile sensing. Due to its
biomimetic design, the BioTac is the world’s only
tactile sensor capable of replicating such perceptions.
Processing of raw sensory data gives the BioTac theability to discriminate and identify objects based on
their compliance, texture and thermal properties, withperformance as well as – and sometimes even betterthan – human perception with the SynTouch Standard.

DEXTERITY
As anyone who has ever had their hands numb from the cold alreadyknows, hands that cannot feel aren’t very dexterous. Robotic hands
without the sense of touch should not be expected to perform any
better. Touch is what gives us the ability to perform complicateddexterous movements and reflexively manage unexpected events.
Information from the BioTac can be used to detect initial contact,
contact location, slip, radius of curvature, and edges, as well as
determine tri-axial force to enable dexterous handling of objects withunknown properties in unknown locations. Combined with biomimetic
compliance to enable delicate interaction, the BioTac is uniquely suited
to improve robotic dexterity.

Photo provided courtesy of NIST

THE NUMATAC®

Compliance and sensitivity to contact are incredibly useful for dexterous interaction andmitigation of collision forces. To address this need, SynTouch has developed theNumaTac, a simplified version of the BioTac providing high contact sensitivity in acompliant package. Due to its foam-based design it can be easily molded in a variety ofshapes and sizes to cover robotic fingertips, hands and arms to provide safe andintelligent interaction.

SYSTEMS AND INTEGRATIONCUSTOM INTEGRATION
SynTouch specializes in providing Machine Touch™: complete tactile
sensing solutions for robotic systems. Our research team is made ofexperts in both human and artificial tactile sensing who have been
pioneering touch-based applications in robotics.
Whether your needs are in mechanical and electrical integration orsoftware and firmware development, SynTouch is your resource to bringhuman-like tactile perception and reflexive dexterity to your project.

BioTac sensors equipped on a prosthetic
hand to enable compliant grasping reflexes.

ROBOTIC SYSTEMS

Shadow Hand
Shadow Robot Company

JACOKinova

BarrettHand
Barrett Technology

PR2
Willow Garage

Allegro Hand
SimlabHUBO
KAIST

Adaptive Gripper
Robotiq

SDH
Schunk213.493.4400 - www.SynTouchLLC.com - info@SynTouchLLC.com