Bio-inspired tactile sensor with arrayed structures based on electroactive polymers

Abstract

Ionic polymer metal composites based on Nafion and Flemion have attracted great attention as an newly developed actuator and sensor materials due to their good performance, such as light weight, good flexibility, low actuation voltage, large strain, good sensitivity. Previous investigations were mostly focused on actuation performance. Recently, we reported some work on flexible tactile sensors based on Flemion ionic polymer metal composites. In this work, we expanded the previous single-dome tactile sensor into a three by three arrayed structure. The correlated substrate and signal collective lines were designed. Several mechanical-electrical relationships on different test domes were obtained when different mechanical input pulses were applied. According to the experiment results, this tactile sensor arrays could achieve good special resolution. By further improving signal circuits, a flexible large-area sensing system could be achieved based on this material. Flemion based ionic polymer metal composites would be a good candidate for bio-related sensors especially for artificial derma applications.