3D Printed flexible fingertip strain sensor

摘要

A significant amount of research has already been conducted on non-flexible force sensors for usage on fingertips of humans and robots. New techniques allow a combination of conductive and nonconductive flexible materials to be 3D printed. This enables the possibility to make flexible strain sensors. Having flexible strain sensors is advantageous, because they can adapt to the shape of a fingertip and be more robust than non-flexible sensors. Specific material properties need to be determined by means of research and testing. This should help in determining what type of strain sensor can be 3D printed and used to measure forces. Furthermore, it should be analysed how such a sensor could achieve both normal and shear force measurements (3-DOF). Of the most effective type of sensor a design will be made, modelled and 3D printed. Sensor performance will be determined by a combination of electro- and mechanical tests.