Study of Static Tactile Detection Threshold via Pneumatically Driven Polydimethylsiloxane Membrane

In this work we investigate how the tactile detection thresholds of air-driven actuators are influenced by design parameters as membrane thickness and diameter, when the finger is in contact with the deformable circular elastic membranes. We report lower thresholds with decreasing membrane thickness and increasing diameters. These results can help in the design of soft actuators for pin-arrays used as graphical tactile displays for visually impaired people.