Soft Touch Research Articles

Design and development of soft robotic hand for vertical farming in spacecraft

<p>For colonization in deep space we need to explore the feasibility of a bioregenerative system in microgravity or artificial gravity environments. The process has various complexities form ranging to biological obstacles to engineering limitations of the spacecraft. Concentration of microbes in the confinements of a spacecraft can be fatal for the crew. In this paper, a solution to the elevated microbial levels by farming using robots is discussed. The soft robotic arm is made up of Asymmetric Flexible Pneumatic Actuator (AFPA). The AFPA under internal pressure will curve in the direction of the side having greater thickness as the expansion of the thinner side (outside radius) will be more than thicker side (inside radius) due to differential expansion and moment induced due to eccentricity. Simulation results demonstrate that bending based on AFPA can meet the designed requirement of application. The AFPA is used for five fingers of the robotic hand. The safe, soft touch and gentle motion of the bellow (AFPA) gives the feel of real human hand. The internal pressure of the AFPA is controlled using a solenoid valve which is interfaced using an Arduino microcontroller for hand like moves. The bending of the fingers and degree of freedom (DOF) of the joints of the hand is controlled using an IMU and flex sensor. Wireless connection of the hand and the control system is implemented using XBee pro 60mW with a range of 1 miles. The pneumatic soft robotic hand is made up of solenoid valve, Mini Compressor, AFPA bellow, and Servos. This soft robotic hand has many advantages such as good adaptability, simple structure, small size, high flexibility and less energy loss. As an extension Manual control of the robot using a virtual reality environment and well as some possible aspects of an automated farming systems can be considered as future additions.</p>

The development of an Android Applications Model for the Smart Micro-Grid Power Pool System Monitoring and Control

This paper presents the conceptual Android Applications Model for the Smart Micro-Grid Power Pool Monitoring and Control Scheme. The Rational for Energy Sustainability is the focus of this work. Several hybrid formations are utilized on either standalone or off grid basis without formidable measures to monitor and control the system against energy wastage remotely. This research work proposed smart micro-grid integrated scheme with android enable operated softtouch human machine interface for the remote monitoring and control of the hybrid power pool system with its load shedding capability for Energy Sustainability. The optimize hybridized renewable energy resources harvested from the abundant wind, sun, water and bio-resources with the grid and Generator sources from Afikpo Local Government Area of Ebonyi State was considered as a research focal point. Proteus was used in designing system circuitries for the control and monitoring of the power pool system to ascertain its functionability. Arduino IDE was used in developing, monitoring and control algorithm for the system operation. The sublime text enables HTML, JAVA and CSS program for the android application implementation. The design provides a remote operated touch screen Human Machine interface for the pool resources to be centrally manage or control thus, eliminating energy wastage. Five communities where selected for this demonstration. The results reveal that the android enable remote soft touch human machine interface facilitates optimal energy operation. Further research work should be tailored towards developing a similar scheme using same approach for up to 10 communities in the similar local government areas to face out energy sabotage.

A Large‐Area, Stretchable, Textile‐Based Tactile Sensor

AbstractA tactile sensor is a necessary means for intelligent equipment to acquire external environment information and improve the performance of human–robot interaction. Although high‐performance tactile sensor array is widely studied, the large number of wires required to transmit data from numerous arrays is still a major obstacle in large‐area application. In this study, a large‐area, low‐cost, stretchable, textile‐based tactile sensor, which is sensitive for contact position, is proposed. The sensor has a simple three‐layer structure and four external wires due to the use of a novel double‐faced effect functional knitted textile with “self‐uniformity” characteristic. The porous polyurethane foam with a large pore size is first reported as touch switch material. It not only has excellent touch switch function, but also makes the sensor have a soft and elastic touch and good impact buffering. In addition, the application of radial basis function neural network makes the sensor have self‐learning “intelligence,” which makes the sensor flexibly and quickly arrange even on the surface of a complex 3D object. Finally, the potential applications of the sensor are demonstrated. This study shows that the sensor has great potential in the fields of wearable devices, robot interaction control, and human–computer interface.

Psoriasis - A Report of Disease Mimicry

Introduction: Psoriasis is a chronic, noncontagious, multifactorial inflammatory skin condition that has several subtypes. Therefore, prior to actual diagnosis, it may mimics other similar illnesses. In acute condition, it typically presents with erythroderma macules associated with pain and itchiness rather than hypopigmented and numbness lesions that supposedly occurs in post-treatment or post-acute phase, rather than as initial presentation. Case report: We report a case of 18-year-old girl, who presented with nonspecific localized hypopigmented rash over her forehead and scalp associated with numbness for three weeks duration. She had no itchiness or rashes elsewhere. She had no history of atopy or recent exposure to new cosmetics. She had no joint pain or hair loss. She had no recent contact with anyone with similar lesion. No significant similar history among family members. Clinically, there is reduced in both soft touch and pin-prick sensation over affected areas. We refer this case to dermatologist with possibility of leprosy in view of her reduced sensation over the lesion. To our surprise, the skin biopsy revealed supportive points towards psoriasis. She responds well towards coal tar and topical corticosteroids-the first line treatment of psoriasis. Her numbness has also resolved. This case highlights that psoriasis do presents with localized numbness in which its diagnosis should be take into consideration before confining the disease towards leprosy only.

Evaluation of compression response of 3D soft touch sensor

Evaluation of compression response of 3D soft touch sensor

High-throughput micromachining with ultrashort pulsed lasers and multiple spots

A one step functionalization of large surfaces and layers could be enabled by high power ultrashort pulsed lasers. Despite today's availability of high power ultrashort pulsed lasers (up to several hundred watts), it is still a challenge to structure large surface areas, which is required on embossing rollers, within an acceptable processing time for industrial roll-to-roll production. Furthermore, fluencies near the ablation threshold are necessary to provide the highest depth resolution with minor side effects. So, it is a challenge to convert the increasing high average laser power into a high processing speed by maintaining the well-known quality of ultrashort pulsed lasers constant. One approach is the combination of a high-speed application and several parallel ablating laser spots. In this contribution, a newly developed high compact picosecond laser with high pulse repetition rates and an average power of 500 W was distributed into 8 and 16 parallel beamlets by a diffractive optical element. The power was controlled by single acousto-optical modulators per beamlet. Different functional surface geometries have been realized on an embossing roller as a master, which is used for the replication of the structures in a roll-to-roll or a roll-to-plate process. Feature sizes from 2 μm to 10 μm in areas of 2 m2 could be processed. With this approach, functional structures such as reduction in friction, improved soft touch, or light guiding elements can be generated on large surfaces within short processing times.

A Novel Fabric Muscle Based on Shape Memory Alloy Springs.

Fabric muscle is important for wearable robots that are soft, compliant, and silent with high contractility and high force. This study presents a novel shape memory alloy (SMA) spring-based fabric muscle (SFM). The SFM is manufactured by bundling SMA springs with proven performance as artificial muscle. The SFM generates high contractility and high force, and is soft, flexible, and light because it is covered with fabric used to make actual clothes. The SFM is contracted by heat and shows a contraction strain of 50% at a heating temperature of 70°C while generating 100 N force or higher. Furthermore, it generates a maximum contraction strain of 67% under no load. To drive it with the optimum voltage and current, the SFM is designed by optimizing the serial and parallel connection methods for the embedded SMA springs. We propose herein design and manufacturing methods for the SFM and verify the usability of the SFM as a soft actuator through a performance evaluation. The SFM as a soft actuator with a simple structure-like fabric is easily applicable to soft wearable robots that can support muscle power by simply being attached to usual suits. The SFM has a soft touch, and is lightweight; hence, it has the potential for wide applications to new-concept soft wearable robots that can be comfortably worn anytime and anywhere like usual clothes.

Vital signs fluctuations and their relationship with pain in the brain-injured adult critically ill – A repeated-measures descriptive-correlational study

ObjectivesTo evaluate the use of vital signs for pain detection in brain-injured patients in the intensive care unit. DesignA repeated-measures descriptive-correlational study. SettingTwo neurological intensive care units in Montréal, Canada. A total of 101 brain-injured patients were included. Main outcome measuresThis study examined the fluctuations in systolic and diastolic blood pressure, heart and respiratory rates, and oxygen saturation in brain-injured critically ill patients before, during, and 15 minutes after turning and soft touch using a data collection computer. When possible, patients’ pain self-reports were obtained using a 0–10 Faces Pain Thermometer. ResultsThe heart and respiratory rates were higher during turning than soft touch and higher during the procedure compared to prior (p < 0.05), but their fluctuation was modest. The systolic blood pressure increased during both turning and soft touch by 2 mmHg, but was 26.6 mmHg higher for those who reported pain versus no pain (Mann-Whitney = 25.00, p = 0.008, n = 28). A moderate correlation was observed between the systolic blood pressure (Spearman’s rho = 0.617, p = 0.004, n = 24) and self-reported pain intensity during turning. No significant effects were observed for diastolic blood pressure and oxygen saturation. ConclusionOnly increases in systolic blood pressure were positively associated with pain in this sample and replication studies with larger samples is needed.

Robotic Hands with Intrinsic Tactile Sensing via 3D Printed Soft Pressure Sensors

Herein, the development of complex 3D intelligent structures such as robotic hands using innovative designs and multimaterial additive manufacturing technology is presented. The distal phalanges of the 3D printed hand presented herein have inherent soft capacitive touch or pressure sensors and embedded electronics. Materials such as thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU), silver paint, conductive polylactic acid composite, graphite ink, etc. are explored to develop five different variants of the sensors using a modified 3D printer, which is capable of extruding conductive ink, metal paste, and polymers. The best‐performing 3D printed soft capacitive touch sensors, formed with silver paint and soft rubber (Ecoflex 00‐30), are integrated on the distal phalanges of the 3D printed robotic hand. These sensors exhibit a stable response with sensitivity of 0.00348 kPa−1 for pressure &lt;10 kPa and 0.00134 kPa−1 for higher pressure. To demonstrate the practical applicability, the 3D printed hand with embedded soft capacitive touch sensors is used for interacting with everyday objects. The tightly integrated sensing elements within the 3D printed structures, as presented herein, can pave the way for a new generation of truly smart material systems that can possibly change their appearance and shape autonomously.

Clinical Study of Thirteen Patients with Spinal Cord Infarction

BackgroundA concept of sensory tracts in the spinal cord has been established in relation to a dorsolateral pathway which is located in the posterior part of the lateral column and conveys the deep sense. MethodsThe clinical status at onset, neurological symptoms, and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings in 13 patients of spinal cord infarction were studied. ResultsThe clinical status was acute in 11 patients and subacute in 2 patients. Palsy of the extremities was noted in 11 patients. Segmental sensory disturbance was shown in all patients. One patient showed disturbance of all senses and paraplegia, which indicated transverse myelopathy. In the other 12 patients, 11 patients showed impairment of pain sense although joint position sense was preserved, excluding 1 patient whose sensory disturbance showed dysesthesia alone. In these 11 patients, soft touch and vibration senses were impaired in 7 patients. Abnormality of spinal cord MRI was detected 7 patients. The lesions were located in the cervical cord in 3 patients, cervical to thoracic cord in 1 patient, and thoracic cord in 3 patients. ConclusionsIn the 11 patients in whom pain sense was impaired and joint position sense was preserved, involvement of the anterior spinal cord artery (ASCA) was the mainstay. Impairment of vibration sense was accompanied in 7 patients in patients of ASCA infarction. It was speculated that impairment of vibration sense can occur in patients with ASCA infarction whose ischemia spread to the dorsolateral pathway in the posterior part of the lateral column.

Mutually Exclusive p‐Type and n‐Type Hybrid Electrode of MoS2 and Graphene for Artificial Soft Touch Fingers

AbstractFuture smart mobile electronics and wearable robotics that can perform delicate activities controlled by artificial intelligence can require rapid motion actuators working at low voltages with acceptable safety and improved energy efficiency. Accordingly, ionic soft actuators can have great potential over other counterparts because they exhibit gentle movements at low voltages, less than 2 V. However, these actuators currently show deficient performances at sub‐1 V voltages in the high‐frequency range because of the lack of electrode materials with the vital antagonistic properties of high capacitance and good conductivity. Herein, a mutually exclusive nanohybrid electrode (pMoS2‐nSNrGO) is reported consisting of oxide‐doped p‐type molybdenum‐disulfide and sulfur‐nitrogen‐codoped n‐type reduced‐graphene‐oxide. The pMoS2‐nSNrGO electrode derives high capacitance from MoS2 and good charge transfer between the two components from p‐n nano‐junctions, resulting in excellent actuation performances (670% improvement compared with rGO electrode at 0.5 V and 1 Hz, together with fast responses up to 15 Hz). With such excellent performances, these actuators can be successfully applied to realize an artificial soft robotic finger system for delicately touching the fragile surfaces of smartphones and tablets. The mutually exclusive pMoS2‐nSNrGO electrode can open a new way to develop high‐performance soft actuators for soft robotic applications in the future.

Au-delà de la « répression financière » et de la « capture de la régulation »

L’évolution des relations entre les États et leurs systèmes financiers respectifs depuis la crise a donné lieu à deux récits opposés. D’une part, les agences gouvernementales sont souvent décrites comme étant à la merci du secteur financier (« capture de la réglementation »). D’autre part, les gouvernements sont dépeints comme abusant du système financier à leur profit (« répression financière »). Le présent article jette un regard critique sur ce débat dans le contexte européen et dans une perspective historique. La relation entre les gouvernements et les systèmes financiers en Europe ne peut se réduire aux notions polaires de « capture » et de « répression » ; les canaux de pression et d’influence entre les gouvernements et leurs systèmes financiers ont souvent été à double sens. La reconfiguration actuelle des systèmes financiers nationaux en Europe n’est pas un retour aux politiques interventionnistes, bien qu’elle soit caractérisée par un rôle politique et économique plus large des organismes publics et banques centrales. Elle est typique des États néolibéraux où les objectifs multiformes des pouvoirs publics sont alignés sur les intérêts privés du secteur financier.

Single-Walled Carbon Nanotube Based Triboelectric Flexible Touch Sensors

Flexible electronics are being broadly explored for their potentially extensive applications in various sectors, such as the internet-of-things. Among these electronic devices, flexible touch sensors play a leading role in soft touch screens and other human-machine interface technologies. Here, we report that by integrating triboelectric field-effect touch sensors with single-walled carbon nanotubes, touch sensitivity can be enhanced; the response of this device is almost 5 times greater than our previously reported devices. This high performance enables this type of flexible sensors to be made into touch panels.

Living Materials Herald a New Era in Soft Robotics

Living beings have an unsurpassed range of ways to manipulate objects and interact with them. They can make autonomous decisions and can heal themselves. So far, a conventional robot cannot mimic this complexity even remotely. Classical robots are often used to help with lifting and gripping and thus to alleviate the effects of menial tasks. Sensors can render robots responsive, and artificial intelligence aims at enabling autonomous responses. Inanimate soft robots are a step in this direction, but it will only be in combination with living systems that full complexity will be achievable. The field of biohybrid soft robotics provides entirely new concepts to address current challenges, for example the ability to self-heal, enable a soft touch, or to show situational versatility. Therefore, "living materials" are at the heart of this review. Similarly to biological taxonomy, there is a recent effort for taxonomy of biohybrid soft robotics. Here, an expansion is proposed to take into account not only function and origin of biohybrid soft robotic components, but also the materials. This materials taxonomy key demonstrates visually that materials science will drive the development of the field of soft biohybrid robotics.

(Invited) Flexible Human-Machine Interfaces and Damage Robust Stretchable Optoelectronics

Electronic devices and machines are undergoing exciting form factor evolutions by adopting formats closer to human skins[1–5]. At the same time, almost all forms of human-machine interfaces require electrically activated light sources to facilitate the interactions. These emerging trends present challenges as well as opportunities for innovations in light emitting devices that are robust to mechanical strains and even severe electro-mechanical damage. Self-healing materials have been shown to be useful in electronic devices and impart repeatable healing of electro-mechanical performance[6,7]. At the same time, stretchable light sources have been demonstrated for applications in soft robotics and touch interfaces[8]. In my talk, I will discuss recent progress in pressure sensor designs, as well as our efforts to develop a stretchable and damage robust opto-electronic materials.

The Soft Touch: Design vs. Disruption

(2019). The Soft Touch: Design vs. Disruption. The Design Journal: Vol. 22, Running with Scissors: 13th International Conference of the European Academy of Design, Dundee, 10-12th April, 2019, edited by Louise Valentine, Joanna Bletcher and Leon Cruickshank, pp. 601-613.

Electrocorticographic changes in field potentials following natural somatosensory percepts in humans.

Restoration of somatosensory deficits in humans requires a clear understanding of the neural representations of percepts. To characterize the cortical response to naturalistic somatosensation, we examined field potentials in the primary somatosensory cortex of humans. Four patients with intractable epilepsy were implanted with subdural electrocorticography (ECoG) electrodes over the hand area of S1. Three types of stimuli were applied, soft-repetitive touch, light touch, and deep touch. Power in the alpha (8-15Hz), beta (15-30Hz), low-gamma (30-50Hz), and high-gamma (50-125Hz) frequency bands were evaluated for significance. Seventy-seven percent of electrodes over the hand area of somatosensory cortex exhibited changes in these bands. High-gamma band power increased for all stimuli, with concurrent alpha and beta band power decreases. Earlier activity was seen in these bands in deep touch and light touch compared to soft touch. These findings are consistent with prior literature and suggest a widespread response to focal touch, and a different encoding of deeper pressure touch than soft touch.

Enzymatic pretreatment of grey cotion fabric for improving dye uptake, lustur and hand feel using fungal cellulase

Cellulase enzyme was extracted from pineapple peel substrate using Aspergiluss niger. Because enzymes are sustainable alternatives to harsh toxic chemicals used in the Textile Industries. Cotton fabrics were treated with cellulase at variable concentrations at a pH of 5.5 and 55°C. Changes in various properties of the treated fabrics like weight loss, lusture, soft touch and overall dyeing properties were investigated. The results obtained show that cellulase have successfully removed staple fibres from the fabrics and thus, yield a glabrous appearance and soft touch of the treated fabrics; furthermore, it was established that percentage dye uptake and fastness properties of the fabrics were greatly improved as confirmed by the FTIR spectral analysis and UV- visible spectrophotometric analysis of the absorbance maximum of the dye liquor before and after dying.Key Words: Cellulase, Aspergillus niger, pre- treatment, cotton fabric and dye uptake.

Soft ionic liquid multi-point touch sensor.

The development of electronic skin (e-skin) and soft tactile sensing has recently attracted great interest. Here we report for the first time on a novel ionic liquid (IL) based soft pressure sensor with multi-point touch detection capability using 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([BMIM]+[BF4]−) as a highly conductive sensing medium. The sensing mechanism is attributed to the repopulation of charge cations and anions in aqueous solution under pressure. The sensor can detect two dimensional touching positions with a sensitivity of −0.28% kPa−1. Our sensor showed good stability and temperature independence thanks to the incompressibility of IL in the range of touch pressure and the appropriate signal measurement configuration. We successfully demonstrated the sensor's capability to detect multi-point human touch with different pressure levels. Our simple design with smart structures and ease of fabrication processes enable the development of a soft and low-cost sensor with multiple-point sensing capabilities on a single chip.

Behaviors Indicative of Pain in Brain-Injured Adult Patients With Different Levels of Consciousness in the Intensive Care Unit

ContextMany brain-injured patients are unable to self-report their pain during their hospitalization in the intensive care unit (ICU), and existing behavioral pain scales may not be well suited. ObjectivesThe objectives of this study were to describe and compare behaviors in brain-injured patients with different levels of consciousness during nociceptive and nonnociceptive care procedures in the ICU and to examine interrater agreement of individual behaviors as well as discriminative and criterion validation of putative pain behaviors. MethodsBrain-injured ICU patients were observed using a 40-item behavioral checklist before and during soft touch (i.e., nonnociceptive procedure), turning, and other care procedures (nociceptive) by pairs of trained raters. When possible, patients self-reported their pain on a 0–10 visual thermometer. Patients were classified into unconscious (Glasgow Coma Scale, 3<GCS≤8), altered consciousness (9≤GCS≤12), or conscious (13≤GCS≤15). ResultsA sample of 147 patients participated (65 conscious, 56 altered consciousness, and 26 unconscious). Active behaviors (e.g., face expressions and body movements) were more frequent in conscious patients. High-percentage interrater agreement (80%–98%) was obtained for most behaviors. The total number of active behaviors was significantly higher during turning and other nociceptive procedures compared with rest (Wilcoxon = 9.873, P < 0.001) and soft touch (Wilcoxon = 9.486, P < 0.001) regardless of levels of consciousness. The strongest predictors of pain intensity (n = 33) were grimace, mouth opening, orbit tightening, eye weeping, and eyes tightly closed; these behaviors were moderately correlated with self-reported pain intensity (Spearman rho = 0.47). ConclusionThese findings may guide the revision of existing pain scales to make their content more suited for this population.