Abstract
Demand for highly compliant mechanical sensors for use in the fields of robotics and wearable electronics has been constantly rising in recent times. Carbon based materials, and especially, carbon nanotubes, have been widely studied as a candidate piezoresistive sensing medium in these devices due to their favorable structural morphology. In this paper three different carbon based materials, namely carbon black, graphene nano-platelets, and multi-walled carbon nanotubes, were utilized as large stretch sensors capable of measuring stretches over 250%. These stretch sensors can be used in robotic hands/arms to determine the angular position of joints. Analysis was also carried out to understand the effect of the morphologies of the carbon particles on the electromechanical response of the sensors. Sensors with gauge factors ranging from one to 1.75 for strain up to 200% were obtained. Among these sensors, the stretch sensors with carbon black/silicone composite were found to have the highest gauge factor while demonstrating acceptable hysteresis in most robotic hand applications. The highly flexible stretch sensors demonstrated in this work show high levels of compliance and conformance making them ideal candidates as sensors for soft robotics.
Highlights
The ever-growing field of robotics especially as used to complement human motions has given rise to the need for light weight and flexible sensors
We aim to addresses this issue by exploring suitable alternatives to the carcinogenic carbon nanotubes (CNT)
Characterization of the prepared stretch sensors was carried out using a stretching7rig, Robotics 2018, 7, x FOR PEER
Summary
The ever-growing field of robotics especially as used to complement human motions has given rise to the need for light weight and flexible sensors. Such devices must be highly compliant with excellent performance to achieve the desired end task and at the same time be comfortable for the end user. There is a demand for sensors, actuators, and electronics that are light weight, low profile, and intrinsically flexible. The term stretch and strain will be interchangeably used here
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