Tactile sensor arrangement and corresponding sensory system

Abstract

A sensory system for a robot comprises a plurality of tactile sensor arrangements (), each of which includes a flexible planar substrate () adapted to form the coating of a robot body, carrying a plurality of pressure sensing devices (), and an associated signal acquisition microcircuit (), so arranged as to acquire electrical signals indicative of the contact with an external object (O) or environment from the plurality of sensing devices (). The microcircuit () faces a serial communication bus (B) shared by a plurality of associated arrangements, so as to provide the signals acquired by the plurality of arrangements to an external microcontroller processing unit (). The sensor arrangement comprises a single input connection port (') of the communication bus, and at least one output connection port (′) of the communication bus, adapted to define a branched path of the bus (B) through said plurality of associated arrangements.