Date of Award

Spring 2026

Document Type

Thesis

Terms of Use

© 2026 Jennifer Salguero, Jefrey Torres, and Alvin Zheng. All rights reserved. This work is freely available courtesy of the author. It may only be used for non-commercial, educational, and research purposes. For all other uses, including reproduction and distribution, please contact the copyright holder.

Degree Name

Bachelor of Arts

Department

Engineering Department

First Advisor

William Johnson

Abstract

This report presents the design, fabrication, and evaluation of three tactile sensors developed as part of the Sensegrity project: a fabric-based double-plate capacitive sensor, Hall effect sensor, and barometric pressure sensor. All three sensors were developed in parallel using Dragon Skin 20 silicone due to its durability and resilience. Each sensor differed in their methodology, the capacitive sensor used a capacitive fabric, the Hall effect sensor employed Hall effect integrated circuits (IC’s), and the barometric pressure sensor relied on pressure sensors to detect applied forces.

Each sensor successfully provided real-time binary contact detection. Physically, the capacitive sensor fit over the original end cap as a sock-like structure, while the Hall effect and barometric pressure sensors entirely replaced the end cap to accommodate all their components. The Hall effect sensor was the only sensor capable of identifying both the location and magnitude of an applied force through a neural network. The network calculated the applied force magnitude with a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of 0.43 Newtons. For spatial localization, the model predicted the ]contact coordinates with an average error of 1.35 millimeters, and the angle of the applied force with an average error of 5.5 degrees. Each sensor differed in price points with the capacitive sensor, Hall effect sensor and barometric pressure sensor each costing $4, $14 and $20 per unit, respectively. Based on a comprehensive evaluation the Hall effect sensor was selected as the best tactile sensing solution for the tensegrity robot.

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