A Stretchable Multimodal Sensor for Soft Robotic Applications

Din, Abdul Sattar; Wang, Xu; Cheng, Leo K.; Dirven, Steven

doi:10.1109/jsen.2017.2726099

Cited by 46 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…For a wide range of applications, it is of great interest to study the embedding of soft sensor systems in a polymer or composite matrixes, as this is often the goal in the creation of stretchable electronics or soft robotic systems [7]. This method often involves the combination of a conductive phase inside a polymer matrix that is not conductive [8].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of the Elastomer Matrix on Thermoplastic Elastomer-Based Strain Sensor Fiber Composites

Georgopoulou

Kummerlöwe

Clemens

2020

Sensors

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In this study, a thermoplastic elastomer sensor fiber was embedded in an elastomer matrix. The effect of the matrix material on the sensor properties and the piezoresistive behavior of the single fiber-matrix composite system was investigated. For all composites, cycling test (dynamic test) and the relaxation behavior at different strains (quasi-static test) were investigated. In all cases, dynamic properties and quasi-static significantly changed after embedding, compared to the pure fiber. The composite with the silicone elastomer PDMS (Polydimethylsiloxane) as matrix material exhibited deviation from linear response of the resistivity at low strains and proved an unsuitable choice compared to natural rubber. The addition of a spring construct in the embedded sensor fiber natural rubber composite improved the linearity at low strains but increased the mechanical and electrical hysteresis of the soft matter sensor composite. Using pre-vulcanized natural rubber improved linearity at low strains and reduced significantly the stress and relative resistance relaxation as well as the resistance hysteresis, especially if the resistance remained low. In both cases of the pre-vulcanized rubber and the spring structure, the piezoresistive behavior was improved, and at the same time, the stiffness of the system was increased indicating that using a stiffer matrix can be a strategy for improving the sensor properties.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of the Elastomer Matrix on Thermoplastic Elastomer-Based Strain Sensor Fiber Composites

Georgopoulou

Kummerlöwe

Clemens

2020

Sensors

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“…To have a multimodal sensing capability (i.e., the capability of detecting or decoupling different types of stimuli applied to the sensor at the same time) in the above structures, multiple sensing elements, whether they share the same mechanism, need to be physically combined together to form one sensing structure. This may cause the design and the fabrication process to be complex or may increase the size of the structure, as shown in the multilayered soft skin sensor with embedded microfluidic channels (11) or the multimodal sensor fabricated of multilayered copper-polyimide film electrodes (70).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heterogeneous sensing in a multifunctional soft sensor for human-robot interfaces

et al. 2020

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Soft sensors have been playing a crucial role in detecting different types of physical stimuli to part or the entire body of a robot, analogous to mechanoreceptors or proprioceptors in biology. Most of the currently available soft sensors with compact form factors can detect only a single deformation mode at a time due to the limitation in combining multiple sensing mechanisms in a limited space. However, realizing multiple modalities in a soft sensor without increasing its original form factor is beneficial, because even a single input stimulus to a robot may induce a combination of multiple modes of deformation. Here, we report a multifunctional soft sensor capable of decoupling combined deformation modes of stretching, bending, and compression, as well as detecting individual deformation modes, in a compact form factor. The key enabling design feature of the proposed sensor is a combination of heterogeneous sensing mechanisms: optical, microfluidic, and piezoresistive sensing. We characterize the performance on both detection and decoupling of deformation modes, by implementing both a simple algorithm of threshold evaluation and a machine learning technique based on an artificial neural network. The proposed soft sensor is able to estimate eight different deformation modes with accuracies higher than 95%. We lastly demonstrate the potential of the proposed sensor as a method of human-robot interfaces with several application examples highlighting its multifunctionality.

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“…A solution to quantify deformation is the use of external stretchable and wearable strain sensors. Such technology has been demonstrated for human motion detection [ 7 ], health monitoring [ 8 ], and soft robotics [ 9 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Investigation of Auxetic Textured Soft Strain Gauge for Monitoring Animal Skin

Liu

Kollosche

Jin

et al. 2020

Sensors

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Recent advances in hyperelastic materials and self-sensing sensor designs have enabled the creation of dense compliant sensor networks for the cost-effective monitoring of structures. The authors have proposed a sensing skin based on soft polymer composites by developing soft elastomeric capacitor (SEC) technology that transduces geometric variations into a measurable change in capacitance. A limitation of the technology is in its low gauge factor and lack of sensing directionality. In this paper, we propose a corrugated SEC through surface texture, which provides improvements in its performance by significantly decreasing its transverse Poisson’s ratio, and thus improving its sensing directionality and gauge factor. We investigate patterns inspired by auxetic structures for enhanced unidirectional strain monitoring. Numerical models are constructed and validated to evaluate the performance of textured SECs, and to study their performance at monitoring strain on animal skin. Results show that the auxetic patterns can yield a significant increase in the overall gauge factor and decrease the stress experienced by the animal skin, with the re-entrant hexagonal honeycomb pattern outperforming all of the other patterns.

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A Stretchable Multimodal Sensor for Soft Robotic Applications

Cited by 46 publications

References 32 publications

Effect of the Elastomer Matrix on Thermoplastic Elastomer-Based Strain Sensor Fiber Composites

Effect of the Elastomer Matrix on Thermoplastic Elastomer-Based Strain Sensor Fiber Composites

Heterogeneous sensing in a multifunctional soft sensor for human-robot interfaces

Numerical Investigation of Auxetic Textured Soft Strain Gauge for Monitoring Animal Skin

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