Tactile sensors based on conductive polymers

Abstract

This paper presents results from a selection of tactile sensors that have been designed and fabricated. These sensors are based on a common approach that consists in placing a sheet of piezoresistive material on the top of a set of electrodes. We use a thin film of conductive polymer as the piezoresistive material. Specifically, a conductive water-based ink of this polymer is deposited by spin coating on a flexible plastic sheet, giving it a smooth, homogeneous and conducting thin film. The main interest in this procedure is that it is cheap and it allows the fabrication of flexible and low cost tactile sensors. In this work we present results from sensors made using two technologies. Firstly, we have used a flexible Printed Circuit Board (PCB) technology to fabricate the set of electrodes and addressing tracks. The result is a simple, flexible tactile sensor. In addition to these sensors on PCB, we have proposed, designed and fabricated sensors with screen printing technology. In this case, the set of electrodes and addressing tracks are made by printing an ink based on silver nanoparticles. The intense characterization provides us insights into the design of these tactile sensors.

Cable Crosstalk Suppression in Resistive Sensor Array with 2-Wire S-NSDE-EP Method

“…In the row-column fashion, 2D resistive sensor arrays needed few wires but suffered from crosstalk caused by parasitic parallel paths. For suppressing crosstalk, many methods have been proposed and analyzed in literatures, such as the passive integrators method [3], the inserting diode method [11], the resistive matrix array method [12], the voltage feedback methods [2,[13][14][15][16][17], and the zero potential methods (ZPMs) [1,[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][16][17][18][19][20]. Wu et al have suppressed the crosstalk caused by the adjacent column elements and the adjacent row elements with the Improved Isolated Drive Feedback Circuit (IIDFC) [13] and the Improved Isolated Drive Feedback Circuit with Compensation (IIDFCC) [14].…”

“…Resistive sensor arrays were widely used in tactile sensing [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8], light sensing [9], infrared sensing [10], and so forth. In robotic applications, long flexible cables were preferred for flexibility and limited space of the sensitive areas.…”

“…Zhang et al [5] reported a 3 × 3 thin tactile force sensor array based on conductive rubber. Castellanos-Ramos et al [6] reported a 16 × 16 tactile sensor array based on conductive polymers with screen-printing technology. Kim et al [7] reported a flexible tactile sensor array with high performance in sensing contact force.…”

“…Finally, the results of experiments will be analyzed and conclusions for the method will be given. [4] Conductive rubber 32 × 32 >70 Yes [5] Conductive rubber 3 × 3 >95 Yes [6] Conductive polymer 16 × 16 >100 Yes [7] Semiconductor strain gage 5 × 5 >100 Yes [8] FSR 16 × 16 500 Yes [9] Light dependent resistor 16 × 16 -Yes…”

Tactile Sensor-Based Steering as a Substitute of the Attendant Joystick in Powered Wheelchairs

“…Tactile sensors could be an alternative to the latter in haptic devices. Simple tactile sensors can be built at a low cost [33]. Besides, these sensors have other possible advantages.…”