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Soft, Transparent, Electronic Skin for Distributed and Multiple Pressure Sensing
In this paper we present a new optical, flexible pressure sensor that can be applied as smart skin to a robot or to consumer electronic devices. We describe a mechano-optical transduction principle that can allow the encoding of information related to an externally applied mechanical stimulus, e.g.,...
Autores principales: | , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI)
2013
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3690071/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23686140 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s130506578 |
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author | Levi, Alessandro Piovanelli, Matteo Furlan, Silvano Mazzolai, Barbara Beccai, Lucia |
author_facet | Levi, Alessandro Piovanelli, Matteo Furlan, Silvano Mazzolai, Barbara Beccai, Lucia |
author_sort | Levi, Alessandro |
collection | PubMed |
description | In this paper we present a new optical, flexible pressure sensor that can be applied as smart skin to a robot or to consumer electronic devices. We describe a mechano-optical transduction principle that can allow the encoding of information related to an externally applied mechanical stimulus, e.g., contact, pressure and shape of contact. The physical embodiment that we present in this work is an electronic skin consisting of eight infrared emitters and eight photo-detectors coupled together and embedded in a planar PDMS waveguide of 5.5 cm diameter. When a contact occurs on the sensing area, the optical signals reaching the peripheral detectors experience a loss because of the Frustrated Total Internal Reflection and deformation of the material. The light signal is converted to electrical signal through an electronic system and a reconstruction algorithm running on a computer reconstructs the pressure map. Pilot experiments are performed to validate the tactile sensing principle by applying external pressures up to 160 kPa. Moreover, the capabilities of the electronic skin to detect contact pressure at multiple subsequent positions, as well as its function on curved surfaces, are validated. A weight sensitivity of 0.193 gr(−1) was recorded, thus making the electronic skin suitable to detect pressures in the order of few grams. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-3690071 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2013 |
publisher | Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-36900712013-07-09 Soft, Transparent, Electronic Skin for Distributed and Multiple Pressure Sensing Levi, Alessandro Piovanelli, Matteo Furlan, Silvano Mazzolai, Barbara Beccai, Lucia Sensors (Basel) Article In this paper we present a new optical, flexible pressure sensor that can be applied as smart skin to a robot or to consumer electronic devices. We describe a mechano-optical transduction principle that can allow the encoding of information related to an externally applied mechanical stimulus, e.g., contact, pressure and shape of contact. The physical embodiment that we present in this work is an electronic skin consisting of eight infrared emitters and eight photo-detectors coupled together and embedded in a planar PDMS waveguide of 5.5 cm diameter. When a contact occurs on the sensing area, the optical signals reaching the peripheral detectors experience a loss because of the Frustrated Total Internal Reflection and deformation of the material. The light signal is converted to electrical signal through an electronic system and a reconstruction algorithm running on a computer reconstructs the pressure map. Pilot experiments are performed to validate the tactile sensing principle by applying external pressures up to 160 kPa. Moreover, the capabilities of the electronic skin to detect contact pressure at multiple subsequent positions, as well as its function on curved surfaces, are validated. A weight sensitivity of 0.193 gr(−1) was recorded, thus making the electronic skin suitable to detect pressures in the order of few grams. Molecular Diversity Preservation International (MDPI) 2013-05-17 /pmc/articles/PMC3690071/ /pubmed/23686140 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s130506578 Text en © 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/ |
spellingShingle | Article Levi, Alessandro Piovanelli, Matteo Furlan, Silvano Mazzolai, Barbara Beccai, Lucia Soft, Transparent, Electronic Skin for Distributed and Multiple Pressure Sensing |
title | Soft, Transparent, Electronic Skin for Distributed and Multiple Pressure Sensing |
title_full | Soft, Transparent, Electronic Skin for Distributed and Multiple Pressure Sensing |
title_fullStr | Soft, Transparent, Electronic Skin for Distributed and Multiple Pressure Sensing |
title_full_unstemmed | Soft, Transparent, Electronic Skin for Distributed and Multiple Pressure Sensing |
title_short | Soft, Transparent, Electronic Skin for Distributed and Multiple Pressure Sensing |
title_sort | soft, transparent, electronic skin for distributed and multiple pressure sensing |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3690071/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23686140 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s130506578 |
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