High‐Performance Flexible Tactile Sensor Enabling Intelligent Haptic Perception for a Soft Prosthetic Hand

Abstract

Compared to the traditional motor‐driven prosthetic hand, a soft prosthetic hand (SPD) has intrisic advantages such as kinematics dexterity and friendly external interaction. In order for an SPD to realize the function of a real hand, the integration of flexible high‐performance tactile sensors is essential. Current research on flexible tactile sensors is mainly focused on increasing sensitivity, but ignores other issues, such as the complexity of arraying and compatibility with soft actuators. A high‐performance flexible force sensor enabling intelligent tactile perception for an SPD is reported. With the aid of reasonable arrangement of functional material and effective 3D structure design, the force sensor exhibits good linearity (R2 = 0.982), accuracy and repeatability, very low hysteresis, fast dynamical response (<1 ms), high stability (30000 loading–unloading cycles), stable performance under high frequency (>50 Hz), and can easily be arrayed and integrated with an SPD. With such a sensor mounted on its surface, an SPD achieves various complicated tasks in the same manner as a real hand, including feeling the softness of objects and imitating the process of traditional Chinese medicine pulse diagnosis to monitor a pulse wave in the radial artery. Finally, through use of a force‐sensor array, an SPD provides real‐time spatial distribution of pressure during the grabbing of objects.

Flexible Waterproof Piezoresistive Pressure Sensors with Wide Linear Working Range Based on Conductive Fabrics

“…Flexible pressure sensor, especially the piezoresistive sensor, is widely employed in electronic skin [1][2][3][4], healthcare monitoring [5][6][7][8], and human-machine interactions (HMI) [9][10][11]. To expand the feasibility of the piezoresistive sensor for diversified practical applications, they should have a linear pressure-sensing capability within large dynamic sensing ranges to constantly maintain their high sensitivity from lowpressure (< 10 kPa) to high-pressure region (> 100 kPa, even near 1 MPa) [12][13][14].…”

Flexible inorganic bioelectronics

“…8h. 171 By integrating the tactile sensor on the surface of a soft prosthetic hand, the smart hand could complete various tasks like a real hand, including imitating the process of traditional Chinese medicine pulse diagnosis to detect pulse signals in radial artery, as shown in Fig. 8i and provide real-time spatial distribution of pressure during grabbing objects as shown in Fig.…”

Skin‐Like Electronics for Perception and Interaction: Materials, Structural Designs, and Applications

“…This section introduces the application of these delicate sensory systems for physical conditions, including breathing composition, [ 152,153 ] blood oxygen, [ 154 ] blood pressure, [ 155 ] blood glucose, [ 129 ] bowel sounds, [ 131 ] and pulse. [ 156 ]…”

“…Flexible tactile devices can conformably attach to the surface of human tissues and measure these mechanical signals accurately. Liang et al [ 156 ] presented a soft prosthetic finger integrated with flexible high‐performance (good linearity, fast dynamic response, and high stability) force sensor arrays. Figure 7g shows the traditional Chinese medical pulse by using this soft prosthetic finger with the sensor array in the radial artery.…”