Advancing Ubiquitous Tactile Sensing through Comprehensive Tooling for Resistive Matrix-Based Sensors

Abstract

Resistive matrix-based tactile sensors offer a scalable and intuitive approach to capturing human-environment interactions, yet deploying them in real-world systems remains challenging because they must remain portable, adaptive, and long-lasting. This thesis presents the WiReSens Toolkit, an open-source hardware and software platform for developing resistive tactile sensing systems that meet the demands of real world applications. The toolkit features adaptive hardware for interfacing with resistive sensors and a web-based GUI that mediates access to otherwise complex functionality, including 1) multi-device programming and wireless visualization across three distinct communication protocols 2) autocalibration methods for adaptive sensitivity and 3) intermittent data transmission for low-power operation. As a use case for the toolkit, the thesis then introduces a method for the automatic design and fabrication of custom tactile sensing gloves using flexible printed circuit boards (FPCBs), enabling rapid, scalable production. Together, these contributions lower barriers to adoption and support broader exploration of tactile sensing in HCI, robotics, and ubiquitous computing.