Finger-inspired rigid-soft hybrid tactile sensor with superior sensitivity at high frequency.

Journal: Nature communications
Published Date: Aug 29, 2022

Abstract

Among kinds of flexible tactile sensors, piezoelectric tactile sensor has the advantage of fast response for dynamic force detection. However, it suffers from low sensitivity at high-frequency dynamic stimuli. Here, inspired by finger structure-rigid skeleton embedded in muscle, we report a piezoelectric tactile sensor using a rigid-soft hybrid force-transmission-layer in combination with a soft bottom substrate, which not only greatly enhances the force transmission, but also triggers a significantly magnified effect in d working mode of the piezoelectric sensory layer, instead of conventional d mode. Experiments show that this sensor exhibits a super-high sensitivity of 346.5 pC N (@ 30 Hz), wide bandwidth of 5-600 Hz and a linear force detection range of 0.009-4.3 N, which is ~17 times the theoretical sensitivity of d mode. Furthermore, the sensor is able to detect multiple force directions with high reliability, and shows great potential in robotic dynamic tactile sensing.

Authors

  • Jinhui Zhang
    School of Automation, Beijing Institute of Technology, Beijing 100081, China. Electronic address: zhangjinh@bit.edu.cn.
  • Haimin Yao
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong SAR, China.
  • Jiaying Mo
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 999077, China.
  • Songyue Chen
    Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, China.
  • Yu Xie
    Department of Sociology, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey, USA.
  • Shenglin Ma
    Department of Radiation Oncology, The Affiliated Hangzhou Hospital of Nanjing Medical University, Hangzhou, China.
  • Rui Chen
    College of Food Science and Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, Shanxi, China.
  • Tao Luo
  • Weisong Ling
    Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, China.
  • Lifeng Qin
    Department of Mechanical and Electrical Engineering, Xiamen University, Xiamen, 361102, China. liq@xmu.edu.cn.
  • Zuankai Wang
    Department of Mechanical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, 999077, China. zuanwang@cityu.edu.hk.
  • Wei Zhou
    Department of Eye Function Laboratory, Eye Hospital, China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Beijing, China.

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