A Flexible Pain Sensor Based on PDMS-AgNWs

Abstract

Skin gives us the ability to perceive a variety of external environmental stimuli. Recently, electronic skin has attracted much attention to imitate the environmental perception function of human skin. Here, we present a novel flexible sensor based on PDMS-AgNWs that can be used for biomimetic pain sensing. Thanks to the piezoresistive effect applied in the device, the structure of our device is simple which does not require array structure and complex electrode design. Through analysis of the response time and current amplitude of the time domain current curve, we can differentiate the sharpness and hardness of external objects simultaneously during the action of external objects and determine whether the contact produces pain. The sensor can effectively sense the pain caused by contact with hard and sharp objects and mimic the injury warning function of human skin with the help of labview, which has potential applications in electronic skin and robot bionics.