Developing Flexible Tactile Sensor

Abstract

Many researchers and scientists are trying to develop artificial human skin for robotic applications, but they face difficulty when they try to create an electronic skin that will mimic humans’ responses. The key difficulty they face is in providing 3D stress/strain distributions with a clear device architecture and achieving high stretchability, sensitivity, and durability at the same time. The tactile sensor must be simultaneously flexible and stretchable to adapt to diverse touch surfaces through various deformations. Material selection and changing the microstructure allowed the sensor to exhibit flexible and stretchable properties, while also enhancing its sensitivity performance. Three strong material candidates allowed us to fabricate the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) sensor which are PDMS, P(VDF-TrFE), and MXene. Two interlocking structures were designed and printed through a 3D printer which was then molded with silicone to obtain our desired shapes. Results showed us 2mm height interlocking design obtained the highest voltage output (143 V) when compared with a 1mm height (130 V) and flat surface (120 V). MXene also enhanced the voltage output of each sensor with a 240% jump relative to pure PDMS. The sensors not only demonstrate excellent electrical performance from the characterization, but they also maintain an acceptable amount of mechanical strength and flexibility for the intended use for which they were designed.

Date of Award	8 Dec 2023
Original language	American English
Supervisor	Lianxi Zheng (Supervisor)