Strain sensing fabric characterization

Abstract

Electrically conductive elastomer (CE) composites show piezoresistive properties when a deformation is applied. In several applications, CE can be integrated into fabric or into other flexible substrates and can be employed as a strain sensor. Moreover, integrated CE sensors may be used in biomechanical analysis to realize wearable kinesthetic interfaces able to detect the posture and movement of a subject. Unfortunately, the long transient time (up to several minutes) and some peculiar non-linear phenomena in CE require a complex treatment of signals which is described in the present work.