Soft grippers with sensory‐integration mimicking humanoid hands, capable of grabbing various kinds of objects in a safe and easy manner, have numerous potential applications in advanced areas. However, precise sensing capabilities of the soft grippers for external stimuli are still nascent and fabrication of integrating sensory receptors remains a challenge. Herein, multiple tactile (pressure, temperature, and humidity) sensors are fabricated on the surface of pneumatic soft fingers by printing technologies including direct writing and electrospraying to simultaneously detect external stimuli while grasping. Composites composed of graphene nano‐platelets (GNPs)/multi‐walled carbon nanotube (MWCNT)/polyethylene oxide (PEO), reduced graphene oxide (rGO), and graphene oxide (GO) are selected as sensitive materials for pressure, temperature, and humidity sensor, respectively. The fingers are able to bend with an angle of 75° and output force of 0.133 N under air pressure of 12 kPa. The printed tactile sensors exhibit good sensing performance. The application of grasping a lemon, a cooked egg, and a plum demonstrates that the pneumatic soft gripper owns the capability of accurately detecting tactile changes during grasping different objects. Thus, such integration methods by direct writing and electrospraying will open a facile technical platform for constructing the soft grippers with tactile sensors.
Highly stretchable electrodes with electrically robust behavior are critical for wide applications of soft robots, electronic skins, and flexible sensors. However, it remains challenging to fabricate such electrodes with traditional fabrication methods, such as lithography, conductive composite material synthetization, stencil printing, and microchannel injection. Herein, a facile method is proposed to construct robust and stretchable electrodes by direct‐written liquid metal (LM) onto a predeposited interface bonding layer, which greatly improves the interfacial force between the LM and substrate. An electrospun graphene oxide/thermoplastic polyurethane composite nanofiber membrane is used as the bonding layer, which provides rich –OH on the interface and in situ forming of hydrogen bond (H‐bond) with the LM oxide layer. A prototype electrode shows stretchability of 580%. The resistance remains stable that varies from 2.8 to 19.3 Ω at 500% elongation, and varies slightly after 7500 stretching cycles under 50% elongation, from 2.6–4.0 to 4.4–6.4 Ω. The fabrication technique is demonstrated with applications in stretchable circuit board assemblies and stretchable electronic cables, indicating a potential effective method for fabricating high‐performance stretchable electrodes.
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