Design and Application of Galinstan Liquid Metal Fully Flexible Angular Displacement Sensor

Abstract

In this study, we design and fabricate a fully flexible angular displacement sensor and a corresponding fish-shaped soft pneumatic actuator. We describe the design and fabrication process of the sensor and fabricate a corresponding physical object to apply it to the soft pneumatic actuator. Material experiments with silicone rubber were also conducted to obtain the linear relationship in its small deformation range. Through the theoretical analysis of the designed angular displacement sensor, a linear relationship between the bending angle of the soft pneumatic actuator and the resistance of the angular displacement sensor was obtained. And a bending angle visual measurement platform was built for experimental verification. The results show that the experimental results are consistent with the theory, and the designed angular displacement sensor has a good linear relationship when applied to a fish-shaped soft pneumatic actuator.