Developing an artificial fingertip with human friction properties

This paper describes the construction and use of an artificial fingertip with a visco-elastic core, a skin and finger print surface roughness, and the initial development of a virtual model, to mimic the structure, the shape, the softness and the friction properties of real fingertips to apply to human feeling studies. The mechanical (including friction) properties of different artificial fingertips were tested and analyzed. The results show that the pure silicone artificial fingertip had different friction characteristics than a real fingertip. However, when the softness of the multi-layer artificial fingertip is closer to the real fingertip, the friction properties are similar to a real fingertip. The required properties for a 2D model to mimic a 3D fingertip are being developed.