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Design of biomimetic human-skin-like tactile flexible sensor

Xiaozhou Lu (School of Aerospace Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xian, China)
Xi Xie (School of Aerospace Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xian, China)
Qiaobo Gao (School of Aerospace Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xian, China)
Hanlun Hu (School of Aerospace Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xian, China)
Jiayi Yang (School of Aerospace Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xian, China)
Hui Wang (School of Aerospace Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xian, China)
Songlin Wang (School of Aerospace Science and Technology, Xidian University, Xian, China)
Renjie Chen (Beijing Key Laboratory of Environmental Science and Engineering, School of Chemical Engineering and the Environment, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing, China)

Sensor Review

ISSN: 0260-2288

Article publication date: 24 May 2018

Issue publication date: 17 May 2019

351

Abstract

Purpose

The hands of intelligent robots perceive external stimuli and respond effectively according to tactile or pressure sensors. However, the traditional tactile and pressure sensors cannot perform human-skin-like intelligent properties of high sensitivity, large measurement range, multi-function and flexibility simultaneously. The purpose of this paper is to present a flexible tactile-pressure sensor based on hyper-elastics polydimethylsiloxane and plate capacitance.

Design/methodology/approach

With regard to this problem, this paper presents a flexible tactile-pressure sensor based on hyper-elastics PDMS and plate capacitance. The sensor has a size of 10 mm × 10 mm × 1.3 mm and is composed of four upper electrodes, one middle driving electrode and one lower electrode. The authors first analyzed the structure and the tactile-pressure sensing principle of human skin to obtain the design parameters of the sensor. Then they presented the working principle, material selection and mechanical structure design and fabrication process of the sensor. The authors also fabricated several sample devices of the sensor and carried out experiments to establish the relationship between the sensor output and the pressure.

Findings

The results show that the tactile part of the sensor can measure a range of 0.05-1N/mm2 micro pressure with a sensitivity of 2.93 per cent/N and a linearity of 0.03 per cent. The pressure part of the sensor can measure a range of 1-30N/mm2 pressure with a sensitivity of 0.08 per cent/N and a linearity of 0.07 per cent.

Originality/value

This paper analyzes the tactile and pressure sensing principles of human skin and develop an intelligent sensitive human-skin-like tactile-pressure sensor for intelligent robot perception systems. The sensor can achieve to imitate the tactile and pressure function simultaneously with a measurement resolution of 0.01 N and a spatial resolution of 2 mm.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

The author thanks for support to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Number 61601342, 51772030), the Natural Science Basic Research Plan in Shaanxi Province of China (Program Number 2016ZDJC-07), Shaanxi Postdoctoral Science Foundation funded project (Grant Number 2017BSHYDZZ36) and the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2016YFB0100204).

Citation

Lu, X., Xie, X., Gao, Q., Hu, H., Yang, J., Wang, H., Wang, S. and Chen, R. (2019), "Design of biomimetic human-skin-like tactile flexible sensor", Sensor Review, Vol. 39 No. 3, pp. 397-406. https://doi.org/10.1108/SR-01-2018-0007

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2019, Emerald Publishing Limited

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