KR100730786B1 - Device for tactile sensation modifying signal processing of tactile sensing - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a tactile sensor, and more particularly, to a touch sensing device which is disposed in a large area and improves a touch sensing signal processing function for quickly detecting the presence or absence of contact with an external object.

The touch sensing device having an improved touch sensing signal processing function according to the present invention includes a touch screen module for outputting contact coordinate information when a touch is received from the outside; Is provided in the lower portion of the touch screen constituting the touch screen module to cover the entire lower portion of the touch screen, a plurality of measuring the contact force with an external object by measuring a resistance value that is variable according to the load transmitted through the touch screen Tactile sensor module; A multiplexer for selecting one of the connection lines of the plurality of tactile sensor modules and connecting the central processing unit; When contact coordinate information according to the touch of the touch screen is input from the touch screen module, the corresponding tactile sensor module and the neighboring tactile sensor module disposed at the contact position are sequentially used using the coordinate information of each tactile sensor module stored in the memory. And a central processing unit that controls the driving of the multiplexer to connect and scans the driving of the tactile sensor module connected through the multiplexer.

Touch sensor, touch screen, tactile sensor

Description

Device for tactile sensation modifying signal processing of tactile sensing

1 is a cross-sectional view of a typical three-axis force sensor produced by the fine processing technology (MEMS).

2 is a view showing an example of the layout of the input and output wiring of the tactile sensor consisting of four force sensors shown in FIG.

3 is a view for explaining a conventional tactile sensor module.

4 is a view schematically showing the configuration of a touch sensing device according to the present invention;

5 is a cross-sectional view illustrating a structure of a touch sensing unit according to the present invention.

6 and 7 are views for explaining the tactile sensor module according to the present invention.

8 is a view for explaining the operation of the touch sensing apparatus according to the present invention.

9 is a view for explaining the operation of the touch screen module when the operation of the touch sensing apparatus according to the present invention.

10 is a view for explaining the operation of the tactile sensor module according to the present invention during the operation of the touch sensing device according to the present invention.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

U: Contact Sensing Unit

100: touch screen module

110: upper plate 120: lower plate

130: resistive film 140: adhesive

150: dot spacer

300: tactile sensor module

310, P: 3-axis force sensor 320: Input-side multiplexer

330: output multiplexer 340: control unit

R: resistance

500: multiplexer

700: central processing unit

The present invention relates to a tactile sensor, and more particularly, to a touch sensing device which is disposed in a large area and improves a touch sensing signal processing function for quickly detecting the presence or absence of contact with an external object.

At present, the tactile function of acquiring information on the surrounding environment through contact, such as contact force, vibration, surface roughness, and temperature change due to heat conduction, is recognized as a next-generation information gathering medium, and is a biomimetic type that can replace tactile sense. The tactile sensor is not only used for various medical diagnosis and procedures such as microsurgery and cancer diagnosis in blood vessels, but also because it can be applied to tactile sensation technology important in the virtual environment realization technology in the future, its importance is increasing.

As the biomimetic tactile sensor, a six-degree of freedom force / torque sensor, which is already used for the wrist of an industrial robot, and a sensor capable of detecting contact force and instantaneous slipping for a gripper of the robot have been developed.

FIG. 1 illustrates a three-axis force sensor P manufactured by micro pore technology (MEMS) on a wafer, and is composed of a rectangular thin film type force sensing unit that is loaded in three directions of Fx, Fy, and Fz.

That is, the force sensing unit of the force sensor P prevents the destruction of the film when the loading block 1, the side block 2 supporting the entire structure, and the overload are transmitted. It consists of an overload protection block (3) made by a silicon microfabrication technique bonded to the load block (1).

On the other hand, by placing a resistor (4) on one side of the load block (1) by measuring the resistance value of the resistance (4) changes according to the load transmitted to the load block (1) to contact force (vertical force, horizontal force) with an external object Will be measured.

2 is a view showing an example of the arrangement of the input and output wiring of the tactile sensor consisting of the four force sensors (P) described above, four resistors (4) are arranged on the top, bottom, left and right of the load block (1) of the force sensor (P) Since eight input / output wires are required for one force sensor P, a total of 32 input / output wires are arranged for the four force sensors P. FIG.

However, when using such a wiring method, when the number of force sensors P is small, there is no difficulty in the arrangement of the input / output wiring, but in the case of integrating hundreds of force sensors P, a lot of difficulties arise in the arrangement of the input / output wiring. .

Accordingly, the present inventor has proposed a tactile sensor module that can stably obtain the input and output wiring of the tactile sensor and the output signal of the tactile sensor through Patent Application No. 2005-73927.

That is, in the proposed tactile sensor module, as shown in FIG. 3, any one of a tactile sensor unit TSU in which a plurality of three-axis force sensors P are configured in an NxM matrix form, and a main input line of the tactile sensor unit TSU. To control the driving of the input / output multiplexers 10 and 20 and the input / output multiplexers 10 and 20 respectively connecting one of the main output lines of the tactile sensor unit (TSU) and an output terminal. And a control unit 30 for signal processing to amplify the output signal of the selected tactile sensor unit.

However, when the tactile sensor module configured as described above is used in a small area, the sensor module can quickly detect the presence or absence of a contact, but for example, the weight distribution characteristic of the inspection items for examining bed characteristics or an intelligent robot When a large number of sensor modules are installed in a large area, such as artificial skin, there is a problem that a signal processing time for contact detection is delayed when contacting an external object.

That is, when a contact is detected in a certain area, the entire sensor module installed in a large area must be scanned to detect the contact with the outside, so that the processing time for the detection signal is as long as the time for the corresponding sensor module is scanned. There is a delay.

The present invention has been invented to solve the above problems, it is possible to quickly detect the contact with the external object through the tactile sensor module disposed in the area by using the coordinate information obtained when the contact with the external object. An object of the present invention is to provide a touch sensing device having an improved touch sensing signal processing function.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a touch sensing apparatus having an improved touch sensing signal processing function, including: a touch screen module configured to output contact coordinate information when a touch is received from the outside; Is provided in the lower portion of the touch screen constituting the touch screen module to cover the entire lower portion of the touch screen, a plurality of measuring the contact force with an external object by measuring a resistance value that is variable according to the load transmitted through the touch screen Tactile sensor module; A multiplexer for selecting one of the connection lines of the plurality of tactile sensor modules and connecting the central processing unit; When contact coordinate information according to the touch of the touch screen is input from the touch screen module, the corresponding tactile sensor module and the neighboring tactile sensor module disposed at the contact position are sequentially used using the coordinate information of each tactile sensor module stored in the memory. And a central processing unit that controls the driving of the multiplexer to connect and scans the driving of the tactile sensor module connected through the multiplexer.

According to the above configuration, the touch sensing apparatus having improved touch sensing signal processing function according to the present invention scans only the touch position and the tactile sensor module disposed around the touch position using the contact coordinate information obtained through the touch screen module. When contacting with an external object, the signal according to the contact can be processed more quickly.

The invention will become more apparent through the preferred embodiments described below with reference to the accompanying drawings. Hereinafter will be described in detail to enable those skilled in the art to easily understand and reproduce through these embodiments.

4 is a diagram schematically illustrating a configuration of a touch sensing apparatus according to the present invention.

As shown in the drawings, a touch sensing device (hereinafter, referred to as a "touch sensing device" for convenience) that improves a touch sensing signal processing function according to the present invention is largely a touch sensing unit U, a multiplexer 500 and an overall apparatus. It consists of a central processing unit 700 for controlling the driving of.

In the exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the touch sensing unit U detects only a contact force of a predetermined area in contact with an external object, and is transmitted through the touch screen module 100 and the touch screen as shown in FIG. 5. It is composed of a plurality of tactile sensor module 300 for outputting a contact force.

The touch screen module 100 outputs contact coordinate information according to contact when contacting an external object, and the touch screen constituting the module is configured in various ways. For example, the touch screen may be configured as any one of a contact capacitive type, a pressure resistive film type, an ultrasonic type, and an infrared light sensor type.

In the embodiment of the present invention will be described by illustrating a pressure-sensitive resistive touch screen. That is, the pressure resistive touch screen has a structure of 75 to 200 μm so that the resistive film 130 faces the upper plate 110, which is a false coin plate, which is structurally placed on the upper plate, and the lower plate 120, which is a fixed electrode plate, placed on the bottom thereof. It is adhere | attached by the adhesive agent 140 of the grade. Here, the upper plate 110 and the lower plate 120 are used as a stretchable PET film, polyimide film or thin glass. By this structure, the upper plate 110 is in contact with the lower plate 120 by the pressure pressed by a finger or a pen. The operation of the pressure resistive touch screen having such a configuration will be described in more detail in the operation description of the touch sensing apparatus according to the present invention.

In addition, the tactile sensor module 300 is provided in the lower portion of the lower plate 120 to cover the entire lower plate 120 of the touch screen constituting the touch screen module, and is transmitted through the touch screen. Measures the resistance value that varies with load and measures the contact force with the external object and outputs it.

6 and 7 illustrate an example of a tactile sensor module according to the present invention. FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating a connection relationship between a main input / output line, a power terminal, and an output terminal of an 8 × 8 channel tactile sensor. 6 shows an example of the case where the resistance change of the resistance indicated by reference numeral A is measured without omitting the input / output side multiplexer and the controller.

As shown in FIG. 6, in the tactile sensor module 300, four resistors R are disposed on the top, bottom, left, and right sides of each triaxial force sensor 310, and one terminal of the resistor R is one common. The other terminals of the four resistors R are respectively connected to the sub output line SUB_OUT, and two sub input lines SUB_IN are connected to one common main input line MAIN_IN. 8 sub output lines SUB_OUT are connected to one common main output line MAIN_OUT.

In addition, each main input line MAIN_IN is connected to a power terminal through an input multiplexer 320, and each main output line MAIN_OUT is connected to an output terminal through an output multiplexer 330. The output-side multiplexers 320 and 330 operate under the control of the controller 340 to connect the main input line and the power terminal to the main output line and the output terminal, respectively.

The output terminal is sequentially connected to a voltage detector for detecting a change in the pure resistance value of the resistance to be measured, a voltage amplifier for amplifying the output voltage of the voltage detector to a predetermined level, and a buffer for buffering the output voltage of the voltage amplifier. have.

That is, as shown in FIG. 7, the output of the output terminal is applied to the negative input terminal of the first operational amplifier OPAMP1 constituting the voltage detector, and positive (+) of the first operational amplifier OPAMP1 is provided. ) The input terminal is applied with a voltage equal to the voltage applied to the input lines other than the main input line connected to the resistance A to be measured.

In this embodiment, a voltage of V _G is applied to the positive input terminal of the first operational amplifier OPAMP1, and a voltage of V _GND is applied to an input line other than the main input line connected to the resistor A, which is a measurement target. V _GND and V _G both represent the same voltage.

In addition, it is preferable to set the resistance value of the feedback resistor Rf connected between the output terminal of the first operational amplifier OPAMP1 and the negative input terminal to the same size as the resistance value of the single resistor constituting the force sensor. Do.

On the other hand, the voltage amplifier for amplifying the output voltage of the voltage detector to a predetermined level, the second linear amplifier (OPAMP2) to amplify the compensation voltage (Vcomp) of a predetermined magnitude according to the offset of each resistor to generate a reference voltage (V1) ) And the third linear amplifier OPAMP3 to which the reference voltage V1 is applied as a positive input terminal and the output voltage V2 of the voltage detector is applied as a negative input terminal through a resistor Rff2. ). Here, the compensation voltage Vcomp is configured to be applied through a D / A converter not shown.

In addition, a fourth linear amplifier OPAMP4, which is a buffer for buffering the output voltage V3 of the third linear amplifier OPAMP3, is connected to the output terminal of the third linear amplifier OPAMP3.

Meanwhile, the central processing unit 700 controls the driving of the multiplexer 500 that selects one of the connection lines of the plurality of tactile sensor modules 300 to scan the tactile sensor module 300 connected through the multiplexer 500. do.

That is, the central processing unit 700 includes a memory in which coordinate information of each tactile sensor module provided under the touch screen is stored. Accordingly, when the contact coordinate information according to the contact is input from the touch screen module 100, the central processing unit 700 uses the coordinate information of each tactile sensor module stored in a memory to correspond to the corresponding touch coordinate. And control the driving of the multiplexer 500 to sequentially connect neighboring tactile sensor modules around the same. Then, the tactile sensor module connected through the multiplexer 500 is scanned to obtain a contact force applied to the corresponding contact portion.

Hereinafter, an operating state of the touch sensing device configured as described above will be described with reference to FIGS. 8 to 10.

8 is a view for explaining the operation of the touch sensing apparatus according to the present invention, it shows an example of the case of touching the portion B. And, Figure 9 is a view for explaining the operation of the touch screen module when the operation of the touch sensing device according to the present invention, Figure 10 is the operation of the tactile sensor module according to the present invention during the operation of the touch sensing device according to the present invention. It is a figure for demonstrating.

First, as shown in FIG. 8, the body weight distribution characteristic is inspected among the inspection items inspecting the bed characteristics, or a touch sensing unit constituting the touch sensing apparatus according to the present invention is installed in a large area such as artificial skin of an intelligent robot. In this state, when one point (B in the figure) of the bed surface or the artificial skin is touched, the touch screen module (see FIG. 5) of the touch sensing unit outputs contact coordinate information of the corresponding portion.

That is, as shown in FIG. 9, the touch screen sandwiches the upper plate 110 and the lower plate 120 between the dot spacers 140 so as to face each other at intervals of 100 to 300 μm, and inputs an input signal by a connector tail. It has a structure to extract. In the above state, when the finger or the pen presses the contact point B, the upper plate 110 and the lower plate 120 contact each other. At this time, when the voltage Vx is applied between the electrodes of the lower plate 120, a potential gradient occurs on the resistance surface between the two electrodes. This voltage is read from the electrode of the upper plate 110 and calculated by calculating the contact position of the X-axis.

Next, the voltage Vy is applied between the electrodes of the upper plate 110, the voltage is read from the electrode of the lower plate 120, the position of the Y axis is calculated, and the contact coordinate information about the contact point B is output to the central processing unit 700.

When the coordinate information of the contact point B is input from the touch screen module 100 as described above, the central processing unit (see FIG. 4) is disposed in a predetermined area of the input coordinate information by using the coordinate information of each tactile sensor stored in the memory. Control of the multiplexer to scan the tactile sensors.

For example, when the contact coordinates input from the touch screen module as shown in FIG. 8 is (4.5), the central processing unit is disposed around the coordinates of the tactile sensor module TS0 disposed at the contact point B coordinate 4.5 and the coordinates. The driving of the multiplexer is sequentially controlled such that the tactile sensor modules TS1 to TS8 are connected.

Accordingly, when the tactile sensor module TS0 disposed on the B coordinate is connected to the central processing unit through the multiplexer, the central processing unit scans by driving the tactile sensor module TS0 disposed on the B coordinate.

That is, as shown in FIG. 10, for example, when measuring the resistance change of the resistance indicated by the reference C of the tactile sensor module TS0 disposed at the B coordinate, the input side under the control of the controller 340 (see FIG. 6). The multiplexer 320 (see FIG. 6) is driven to apply a 3V power source to the main input line connected to the C resistor, and to the other main input line as the positive input terminal of the first operational amplifier OPAMP1. Apply a voltage equal to the voltage. FIG. 10 shows that the voltage is grounded.

In addition, the controller 340 drives the output-side multiplexer 330 (see FIG. 6) to connect the main output line connected to the C resistor to the negative input terminal of the first operational amplifier OPAMP1. The pure resistance change of C resistance can be detected without being interfered with the resistance change of the resistance.

As described above, the output voltage V2 of the first operational amplifier OPAMP1 measured according to the resistance change of the C resistance is amplified by the third operational amplifier OPAMP3 of the voltage amplifier, and the third operational amplifier OPAMP3 is input. As the voltage is amplified 100 times, simply amplifying the output voltage V2 of the first operational amplifier OPAMP1 exceeds the voltage range recognizable by the A / D converter.

Therefore, in the present exemplary embodiment, a reference voltage V1 is generated by amplifying a compensation voltage Vcomp having a predetermined magnitude through the second linear amplifier OPAMP2, and the positive input terminal of the third linear amplifier OPAMP3 is generated. The negative input terminal of the third linear amplifier OPAMP3 is differentially amplified by applying the output voltage V2 of the first linear amplifier OPAMP1 through the resistor Rff2 to differentially amplify the signal. The output voltage V2 of the first linear amplifier OPAMP1 is amplified within a recognizable voltage range.

That is, the output voltage V3 of the third linear amplifier OPAMP3 is determined by the following equation.

[Equation 1]

V3 = -Rf2 / Rff2 * (V2-V1) + V1

Here, Rf2 is a feedback resistor connected between the output terminal of the third operational amplifier OPAMP3 and the negative input terminal.

It can be seen from Equation 1 that the reference voltage V1 is adjusted through the compensation voltage Vcomp, and that the magnitude of the output voltage V3 of the third operational amplifier OPAMP3 can be adjusted.

As such, the output voltage V3 of the third operational amplifier OPAMP3 amplified within the voltage range recognizable by the A / D converter is buffered through the fourth operational amplifier OPAMP4, which is a buffer, and then transferred to the A / D converter. Is entered.

Accordingly, by the above operation, the central processing unit obtains a contact force pressed by the touch coordinates from the tactile sensor module. The touch sensing device according to the present invention has a tactile sensor with respect to the corresponding touch coordinates as well as the surroundings thereof. By scanning the neighboring tactile sensors, it is possible to recognize a more accurate contact state through the contact information obtained, that is, the contact force.

As described in detail above, the touch sensing apparatus having an improved touch sensing signal processing function according to the present invention scans only the touch position and the tactile sensor module disposed around the touch position using the contact coordinate information acquired through the touch screen module. Therefore, the signal according to the contact can be processed more quickly when it comes into contact with an external object, and it is possible to check the distribution characteristics of the bed among the inspection items that examine the bed characteristics or to use the artificial skin of the intelligent robot in the large area. The contact state can be easily detected.

In particular, by scanning not only the tactile sensor disposed at the contact position but also the neighboring tactile sensors, it is possible to recognize a more accurate contact state through the obtained contact information.

Although the present invention has been described with reference to the accompanying drawings, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many different and obvious modifications are possible without departing from the scope of the invention from this description. Therefore, the scope of the invention should be construed by the claims described to include many such variations.

Claims (7)

A touch screen module for outputting contact coordinate information when contacting from the outside; Is provided in the lower portion of the touch screen constituting the touch screen module to cover the entire lower portion of the touch screen, a plurality of measuring the contact force with an external object by measuring a resistance value that is variable according to the load transmitted through the touch screen Tactile sensor module; A multiplexer for selecting one of the connection lines of the plurality of tactile sensor modules and connecting the central processing unit; When contact coordinate information according to the touch of the touch screen is input from the touch screen module, the corresponding tactile sensor module and the neighboring tactile sensor module disposed at the contact position are sequentially used using the coordinate information of each tactile sensor module stored in the memory. A central processing unit that controls the driving of the multiplexer to connect and scans the driving of the tactile sensor module connected through the multiplexer; Touch sensing device to improve the touch sensing signal processing function comprising a. The method of claim 1, The touch screen of the touch screen module is a touch sensing device that improves the touch sensing signal processing function, characterized in that consisting of any one of the contact capacitive type, pressure resistive film type, ultrasonic type, infrared light sensor type. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the tactile sensor module is: One terminal of the four resistors constituting the three-axis force sensor is connected to one common sub input line, and the other terminals of the four resistors are respectively connected to the sub output line, and a predetermined number of sub inputs are provided according to the number of input / output channels. A tactile sensor comprising a plurality of three-axis force sensors, each of which has a line and a sub output line connected to one common main input line and a main output line; An input / output multiplexer for connecting any one of the main input lines and the power supply terminal of the tactile sensor to one of the main output lines and the output terminal of the tactile sensor; A control unit controlling an operation of the input / output multiplexer; A voltage detector connected to the output terminal and detecting a change in the pure resistance of the resistor to be measured; And a voltage amplifier configured to amplify the output voltage of the voltage detector to a predetermined level. The method of claim 3, wherein And a buffer for buffering the output voltage of the voltage amplifying unit. The method of claim 3, wherein The voltage detector has an output of the output terminal applied to a negative input terminal, and a positive input terminal having a voltage equal to a voltage applied to an input line other than a main input line connected to a resistor to be measured. And a touch sensing device, comprising: an applied first operational amplifier. The method of claim 5, The resistance value of the feedback resistor connected between the output terminal of the first operational amplifier and the negative input terminal is the same as the resistance value of the single resistor constituting the force sensor. Sensing device. The method of claim 3, wherein the voltage amplifier: A second linear amplifier for amplifying a compensation voltage having a predetermined magnitude according to an offset of each resistor to generate a reference voltage; The reference voltage is applied to the positive input terminal and the negative input terminal includes a third linear amplifier to which the output of the voltage detector is applied. Device.

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