A Fully 3D-Printed Wearable Piezoresistive Strain and Tactile Sensing Array for Robot Hand

The wide application prospects of flexible strain sensors and pressure sensors in robotic perception have led to an urgent demand for the high-precision customized manufacturing and flexible integration of such devices. Herein, a 3D-printed wearable strain and tactile sensing array is developed for robotic perception by integrating a flexible strain sensor and a pressure sensor with porous structures. The flexible strain sensor has a wide linear measurement range of 67.5% with a sensitivity of 2.64. Meanwhile, the flexible pressure sensor has a continuous pressure-monitoring ability in the range of 0-1 N, and it is particularly sensitive to small pressures within 0.2 N. Both the sensors provide a stable output for the seamless sensing of different stimuli, and devices from the same batch provide highly consistent responses. By fully exploiting the flexibility of digital light-processing 3D printing, the sensing array is customized for a robotic hand to realize the grip and finger bending perceptions of the manipulator.

Automated summary

The developed 3D-printed wearable strain and tactile sensing array integrates flexible strain and pressure sensors with porous structures, providing a wide linear measurement range and continuous pressure monitoring ability for robotic perception.