Spidroin Composite Biomimetic Multifunctional Skin with Meta‐Structure
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Abstract Whether for organic life or intelligent machines (robots, Actuators), skin plays an important role as a barrier and sensor, and a lot of research is centered on making multifunctional skins. Here, the authors report an electronic skin with high stretchability, excellent mechanical sensing, and biochemical detection capabilities obtained by combining photonic crystals and sponge‐like filled liquid metal (LM)–polyurethane (PU)–spidroin (SP) composite materials. Inspired by geckos and mussels, a micropillar array is designed and coated with polydopamine to synergistically improve adhesion. P(MMA‐BA) elastic copolymer nanoparticles (are assembled into a photonic crystal pattern to endow electronic skin biochemical detection capabilities. The regionalization of the photonic crystal pattern allows the electronic skin to detect multiple target compounds simultaneously. The base material is an LM–PU–SP composite material with excellent stretchability and pressure sensitivity and is used for motion monitoring and tactile sensing. It is envisioned that this multifunctional electronic skin can be attached to animal skins for health monitoring to facilitate the diagnosis of metabolic diseases and wound inflammation. Alternatively, electronic skins can be attached to robots and soft robots for the collection of samples from heavily polluted areas, to obtain real‐time feedback information during the collection process.Keywords:
Electronic Skin
Tactile sensor
Biomimetics
Tactile sensing is paramount for robots operating in human-centered environments to help in understanding the interaction with objects. To enable robots with the sophisticated tactile sensing capability, researchers have developed different kinds of electronic skins for robotic hands and arms to realize the ‘sense of touch’. Recently, Stanford Structures and Composites Laboratory developed a robotic electronic skin which is based on a network of multi-modal micro-sensors. This skin can identify temperature profile and detect arm strikes by embedded sensors. However, one vital aspect of tactile sensing is yet to be investigated: sensing for the static pressure load. Current state-of-the-art tactile sensors mostly are capacitive sensors which can achieve high sensitivity. However, these sensors are liable to damage under high repeating load. In addition, capacitive sensor signals are prone to external noises which will result in complex circuitry for signal conditioning. In this work, an electromechanical-impedance based method is proposed to investigate the response of piezoelectric sensors to the static normal pressure load. The smart skin sample was firstly fabricated by embedding piezoelectric sensor into the soft silicone. Then a series of static pressure tests to the skin were performed. Test results show that this setup can reach a minimal detectable force of 0.5N by using the proposed diagnostic method. Theoretical analysis was then performed to explain the experiment results.
Tactile sensor
Electronic Skin
Mechanical impedance
Proximity sensor
SIGNAL (programming language)
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A 3D printed flexible tactile sensor with graphene–polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) microspheres for microstructure perception is presented. The structure of the tactile sensor is inspired by the texture of the human finger and is designed to enable the detection of various levels of surface roughness via the processing of tactile signals. The tactile sensor with a unique graphene–PDMS microsphere structure shows excellent comprehensive mechanical properties, including a robust stretching ability (elongation at break of the sensing layer is 70%), excellent sensing ability (short response time of 60 ms), high sensitivity (sensitivity up to 2.4 kPa–1), and cycle stability (over 2000 loading cycles). In addition, such versatility and sensitivity allow the electronic skin not only to accurately monitor pressure but also to distinguish various surface topographies with microscale differences, and to detect the action of an air fluid.
Polydimethylsiloxane
Tactile sensor
Microscale chemistry
Electronic Skin
Tactile Perception
Response time
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Self‐powered flexible tactile sensors based on triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) can be of use in the development of robotic intellisense and interaction. Such sensors typically use triboelectronegative material as top layer, requiring contacting and separating with specific interface material to operate, and may result in suboptimal performance under practical conditions. Herein, a self‐powered interface‐independent tactile sensor array that is based on bilayer single‐electrode TENGs is reported. By integrating both triboelectronegative and triboelectropositive layers in the structure, the sensor overcomes the material restriction of top layer and could sense applied pressure from any material. Furthermore, a 5 × 5 sensor array is fabricated to realize the detection of contact point and the recognition of trajectory. Last, the sensor array is successfully implemented as electronic skin (e‐skin) in a robotic hand for tactile sensing and human–machine interaction. In this regard, it can be envisioned that such tactile sensors possess a promising application in intelligent robots including robotic e‐skin and artificial intelligence.
Tactile sensor
Electronic Skin
Interface (matter)
Electrode array
Sensor array
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A conformal tactile sensor based on MoS2 and graphene is demonstrated. The MoS2 tactile sensor exhibits excellent sensitivity, high uniformity, and good repeatability in terms of various strains. In addition, the outstanding flexibility enables the MoS2 strain tactile sensor to be realized conformally on a finger tip. The MoS2-based tactile sensor can be utilized for wearable electronics, such as electronic skin. As a service to our authors and readers, this journal provides supporting information supplied by the authors. Such materials are peer reviewed and may be re-organized for online delivery, but are not copy-edited or typeset. Technical support issues arising from supporting information (other than missing files) should be addressed to the authors. Please note: The publisher is not responsible for the content or functionality of any supporting information supplied by the authors. Any queries (other than missing content) should be directed to the corresponding author for the article.
Tactile sensor
Electronic Skin
Repeatability
Wearable Technology
Flexible Electronics
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Tactile sensor
Electronic Skin
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Tactile sensor
Piezoresistive effect
Bionics
Electronic Skin
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Flexible tactile sensors with high sensitivity, a broad pressure detection range, and high resolution are highly desired for the applications of health monitoring, robots, and the human-machine interface. However, it is still challenging to realize a tactile sensor with high sensitivity and resolution over a wide detection range. Herein, to solve the abovementioned problem, we demonstrate a universal route to develop a highly sensitive tactile sensor with high resolution and a wide pressure range. The tactile sensor is composed of two layers of microstructured flexible electrodes with high modulus and conductive cotton fabric with low modulus. By optimizing the sensing films, the fabricated tactile sensor shows a high sensitivity of 8.9 × 104 kPa-1 from 2 Pa to 250 kPa because of the high structural compressibility and stress adaptation of the multilayered composite films. Meanwhile, a fast response speed of 18 ms, an ultrahigh resolution of 100 Pa over 100 kPa, and excellent durability over 20 000 loading/unloading cycles are demonstrated. Moreover, a 6 × 6 tactile sensor array is fabricated and shows promising potential application in electronic skin (e-skin). Therefore, employing multilayered composite films for tactile sensors is a novel strategy to achieve high-performance tactile perception in real-time health monitoring and artificial intelligence.
Tactile sensor
Electronic Skin
Sensor array
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Abstract Skin‐inspired sensors are all the rage in robotic applications. They take inspiration from the human skin's sensory abilities and use their abilities to sense things like temperature and pressure. Herein, fabrication of ultra‐low‐cost (<$1.5), ultra‐thin, wide range, and crosstalk‐free skin‐inspired tactile sensors is presented. The sensors consist of piezoresistive pressure sensing elements sandwiched between 3D printed silver nanoparticle electrodes on polyimide layers just like the epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis of human skin. The response time of individual sensing nodes is 4 ms which is faster than the response time of the human skin (30–50 ms). The sensors exhibit high sensitivity (1.35 kPa −1 ), low hysteresis (9.22%), and a wide pressure sensing range (5–600 kPa). The sensor arrays are assembled on the fingertips of a commercial glove to make a smart glove. By combining the sensor information and deep learning, the smart glove is used to identify sharp and blunt objects with a classification accuracy of 95.9% and the direction of applied pressure when touched by an object with a classification accuracy of 97.8%. Furthermore, the smart glove is used to generate pressure maps in real‐time while grabbing six different objects handled by humans in daily life.
Tactile sensor
Electronic Skin
Piezoresistive effect
Sensor array
Response time
Artificial skin
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Tactile sensor arrays have attracted considerable attention for their use in diverse applications, such as advanced robotics and interactive human–machine interfaces. However, conventional tactile sensor arrays suffer from electrical crosstalk caused by current leakages between the tactile cells. The approaches that have been proposed thus far to overcome this issue require complex rectifier circuits or a serial fabrication process. This article reports a flexible tactile sensor array fabricated through a batch process using a mesh. A carbon nanotube–polydimethylsiloxane composite is used to form an array of sensing cells in the mesh through a simple "dip-coating" process and is cured into a concave shape. The contact area between the electrode and the composite changes significantly under pressure, resulting in an excellent sensitivity (5.61 kPa–1) over a wide range of pressure up to 600 kPa. The mesh separates the composite into the arranged sensing cells to prevent the electrical connection between adjacent cells and simultaneously connects each cell mechanically. Additionally, the sensor shows superior durability compared with previously reported tactile sensors because the mesh acts as a support beam. Furthermore, the tactile sensor array is successfully utilized as a Braille reader via information processing based on machine learning.
Tactile sensor
Electronic Skin
Polydimethylsiloxane
Sensor array
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Flexible tactile sensors have been utilized in intelligent robotics for human-machine interaction and healthcare monitoring. The relatively low flexibility, unbalanced sensitivity and sensing range of the tactile sensors are hindering the accurate tactile information perception during robotic hand grasping of different objects. This paper developed a fully flexible tactile pressure sensor, using the flexible graphene and silver composites as the sensing element and stretchable electrodes, respectively. As for the structural design of the tactile sensor, the proposed bilayer interlaced bumps can be used to convert external pressure into the stretching of graphene composites. The fabricated tactile sensor exhibits a high sensing performance, including relatively high sensitivity (up to 3.40% kPa−1), wide sensing range (200 kPa), good dynamic response, and considerable repeatability. Then, the tactile sensor has been integrated with the robotic hand finger, and the grasping results have indicated the capability of using the tactile sensor to detect the distributed pressure during grasping applications. The grasping motions, properties of the objects can be further analyzed through the acquired tactile information in time and spatial domains, demonstrating the potential applications of the tactile sensor in intelligent robotics and human-machine interfaces.
Tactile sensor
Electronic Skin
Tactile Perception
Robotic hand
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