Fabrication and characterization of bending and pressure sensors for a soft prosthetic hand
- 14 December 2017
- journal article
- research article
- Published by IOP Publishing in Journal of Micromechanics and Microengineering
- Vol. 28 (3), 034001
- https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6439/aaa1d8
Abstract
We demonstrate fabrication, characterization, and implementation of "soft-matter" pressure and bending sensors for a soft robotic hand. The elastomer-based sensors are embedded in a robot finger composed of a 3D printed en- doskeleton and covered by an elastomeric skin. Two types of sensors are evaluated, resistive pressure sensors and capacitive pressure sensors. The sensor is fabricated entirely out of insulating and conductive rubber, the latter com- posed of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer embedded with a percolating network of structured carbon black (CB). The sensor-integrated fingers have a simple materials architecture, can be fabricated with standard rapid proto- typing methods, and are inexpensive to produce. When incorporated into a robotic hand, the CB-PDMS sensors and PDMS carrier medium function as an "artificial skin" for touch and bend detection. Results show improved response with a capacitive sensor architecture, which, unlike a resistive sensor, is robust to electromechanical hysteresis, creep, and drift in the CB-PDMS composite. The sensorized fingers are integrated in an anthropomorphic hand and results for a variety of grasping tasks are presented.Keywords
Funding Information
- Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology
- CMU-Portugal ERI (CMUP-ERI/TIC/0021/2014)
This publication has 36 references indexed in Scilit:
- Neural bases of hand synergiesFrontiers in Computational Neuroscience, 2013
- Microfluidic electronicsLab on a Chip, 2011
- Modelling natural and artificial hands with synergiesPhilosophical Transactions Of The Royal Society B-Biological Sciences, 2011
- Conductive polymer-based sensors for biomedical applicationsBiosensors and Bioelectronics, 2011
- Dispersion and functionalization of carbon nanotubes for polymer-based nanocomposites: A reviewComposites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 2010
- Materials and Mechanics for Stretchable ElectronicsScience, 2010
- The Highly Adaptive SDM Hand: Design and Performance EvaluationThe International Journal of Robotics Research, 2010
- Characterizing and Patterning of PDMS‐Based Conducting CompositesAdvanced Materials, 2007
- Strain Sensing Fabric for Hand Posture and Gesture MonitoringIEEE Transactions on Information Technology in Biomedicine, 2005
- Polyisoprene-carbon black nanocomposites as tensile strain and pressure sensor materialsSensors and Actuators A: Physical, 2004