Research on a haptic sensor made using MCF conductive rubber.

To provide a new composite material having a high electrical sensitivity in the fields of robotics and sensing, a magnetic rubber having network-like magnetic clusters was developed by utilizing a magnetic compound fluid (MCF). MCF rubber with small deformations can provide an effective sensor. In this paper, we report many experiments in which changes of the MCF rubber's resistance were observed when the rubber was compressed and a deformation was generated; we then made a trial haptic sensor using the MCF conductive rubber and performed many experiments to observe changes of the electrical resistance of the sensor. The results of experiments showed that the proposed sensor made with MCF conductive rubber is useful for sensing small amounts of pressure or small deformations.