Highly Stretchable Polymer-based Optical Strain Sensor for Integration with Soft Actuator

Abstract

This paper introduces a polymer-based optical strain sensor that has large stretchability. For measuring strain of 100%, we have designed the stretchable sensor by embedding a waved optical fiber into soft polymer substrate. Inducing loss of intensity of light passes through the optical fiber by variation of bending curvature, the sensor can estimate its strain from the magnitude of output light intensity.