Flexible Hybrid Sensor Systems with Feedback Functions

Yang

IEEE Trans. Med. Robot. Bionics

2021

The emerging applications of collaborative robots (cobots) are spilling out from product manufactories to service industries for human care, such as patient care for combating the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic and in-home care for coping with the aging society. There are urgent demands on equipping cobots with safe collaboration, immersive teleoperation, affective interaction, and other features (e.g., energy autonomy and self-learning) to make cobots capable of these application scenarios. Robot skin, as a potential enabler, is able to boost the development of cobots to address these distinguishing features from the perspective of multimodal sensing and self-contained actuation. This review introduces the potential applications of cobots for human care together with those demanded features. In addition, the explicit roles of robot skin in satisfying the escalating demands of those features on inherent safety, sensory feedback, natural interaction, and energy autonomy are analyzed. Furthermore, a comprehensive review of the recent progress in functionalized robot skin in components level, including proximity, pressure, temperature, sensory feedback, and stiffness tuning, is presented. Results show that the codesign of these sensing and actuation functionalities may enable robot skin to provide improved safety, intuitive feedback, and natural interfaces for future cobots in human care applications. Finally, open challenges and future directions in the real implementation of robot skin and its system synthesis are presented and discussed.

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Review of Robot Skin: A Potential Enabler for Safe Collaboration, Immersive Teleoperation, and Affective Interaction of Future Collaborative Robots

Yang

IEEE Trans. Med. Robot. Bionics

2021

“…As mentioned previously in this review, integrating testing devices into hygiene products can greatly increase the number of people the technology can reach and enhance its testing capabilities [76]. This can be built upon by developing additional wearable technologies which allow for continuous monitoring of relevant biomarkers, adding to the amount of data available to make informed clinical decisions [55,127,128]. Potential hurdles to the widespread use of wearable technology, namely the limited biocompatibility of the testing reagents and the inability of the device to be disposed of without pretreatment [129], could both be solved by using materials and chemicals that are designed with human contact in mind.…”

Section: Future Trends and Challengesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Paper and thread as media for the frugal detection of urinary tract infections (UTIs)

et al. 2021

Urinary tract infections (UTIs) make up a significant proportion of the global burden of disease in vulnerable groups and tend to substantially impair the quality of life of those affected, making timely detection of UTIs a priority for public health. However, economic and societal barriers drastically reduce accessibility of traditional lab-based testing methods for critical patient groups in low-resource areas, negatively affecting their overall healthcare outcomes. As a result, cellulose-based materials such as paper and thread have garnered significant interest among researchers as substrates for so-called frugal analytical devices which leverage the material’s portability and adaptability for facile and reproducible diagnoses of UTIs. Although the field may be only in its infancy, strategies aimed at commercial penetration can appreciably increase access to more healthcare options for at-risk people. In this review, we catalogue recent advances in devices that use cellulose-based materials as the primary housing or medium for UTI detection and chart out trends in the field. We also explore different modalities employed for detection, with particular emphasis on their ability to be ported onto discreet casings such as sanitary products. Graphical abstract

“…11a), and fully implantable devices. [130][131][132] Cellulose-based flexible electronic device have substrate, electrodes, sensors, flexible display, flexible energy collection and storage device that can monitor human activities in real time. A flexible electronic device made of a polymer composite material is flexible and elastic.…”

Section: Cellulose Gel For Flexible Sensing Applications In Medical Treatmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent Application of Cellulose Gel in Flexible Sensing-A Review

Li¹,

Guo²,

Li³

et al. 2021

ES Food Agrofor.

There is a huge and growing demand for flexible electronics for electronic skin, wearable devices and medical equipment. At the same time, celluloses with the special crystal shape, surface structure, good biocompatibility and easy degradability is frequently used as a substrate or modified substance for flexible electronic equipment.Therefore, the use of cellulose as a raw material is expected to contribute to environmental protection and help to overcome problems such as biocompatibility and stretchability required by flexible sensing devices. The goal of this review is to provide an overview on the latest developments in cellulose gel-based flexible sensors, especially focusing on the detailed descriptions of the major three applications in electronic skin, sports equipment and medical equipment, as well as the relationship between the structure and properties of the cellulose gel material. Finally, an outlook of the challenges and future possibilities for development of flexible sensing equipment based on cellulose gel material is presented.