Tactile discriminations of surface roughness using artificial sensors have been challenging. The modeling methods and parameters that have been using to describe the mechanical properties of rough surface are insufficient for haptic roughness. This paper proposes a method to characterize surface roughness based on the profiles of the surface. A compact handheld pen-type texture sensor with a right probe is developed for the measurement of surface profiles. Based on the contact force and the motion of the senor, profiles in the paths of scanning are estimated. The height variations of a profile are converted to a series of tactile stimuli to represent the contact stimulations in haptic explorations. The mean and the standard deviation of the amplitudes of stimuli are identified as haptic features that indicate the required tangential force to slide on the rough surface and how rough the surface is, respectively. Experiments show that the roughness on four kinds of sandpapers can he clearly distinguished by the proposed discrimination method.