Soft sensors for a sensing-actuation system with high bladder voiding efficiency

Abstract

Sensing-actuation systems can assist a bladder with lost sensation and weak muscle control. Here, we advance the relevant technology by integrating a soft and thin capacitive sensor with a shape memory alloy–based actuator to achieve a high-performance closed-loop configuration. In our design, sensors capable of continuous bladder volume detection and actuators with strong emptying force have been used. This integration has previously hindered performance due to large bladder volume changes. Our solution integrates sensing-actuation elements that are bladder compatible but do not interfere with one another, achieving real-time bladder management. The system attains a highly desirable voiding target of 71 to 100% of a rat’s bladder with a volume sensitivity of 0.7 μF/liter. Our system represents an efficient voiding solution that avoids overfilling and represents a technological solution to bladder impairment treatment, serving as a model for similar soft sensor-actuator integration with other organs.

Flexible and Stretchable Capacitive Sensors with Different Microstructures

“…[186,187] Arab Hassani et al prestretched a double-sided adhesive acrylic elastomer to 200%, and then released it and added it to the polyimide (PI) substrate to obtain a sensor with a wrinkled structure to monitor force and tension. [188] Atalay et al created a wrinkled structure by a combination of direct-write laser raster and biaxial stretching, which can greatly improve the stretchability of the soft sensor and conductive electrode, with an electrode conductivity of the electrode up to 250% and a linear output of capacitance sensor up to 85% (Figure 8H). [159] The performances of the sensors based on the wrinkle structure are shown in Table 4.…”

Materials, Electrical Performance, Mechanisms, Applications, and Manufacturing Approaches for Flexible Strain Sensors

“…Flexible and wearable electronics have recently attracted wide attention due to their great potential applications in real-time human health monitoring systems (e.g., detection of human motions [1][2][3][4], heart-beat [5,6], blood pressure [7][8][9], and beyond [10][11][12]), humanmachine interfaces [13][14][15] (e.g., flexible sensors work as a medium and dialogue interface for the transmission and exchange of information between humans and machines), and implantable devices [6,[16][17][18]] (e.g., transmit the sense of skin touch information to the brain by using electronic skin, and prosthesis was controlled by the cerebral cortex with 3D microelectrodes, etc.). The synchronized delivery and control of the signal from human body to detector or actuator are convenient, expeditious, effective, and accurate compared with traditional rigid conducting and semiconducting materials based on smart devices [19,20].…”

An artificial sensory neuron with visual-haptic fusion

“…Although multi-sensory capabilities have been realized in some e-skin systems 41 – 43 , their sensory processing has always been completed using conventional digital units. As such, mimicking sensory fusion from the neuronal-level could help to build a highly integrated perceptual system to access massive sensory data for improving current cyborg technologies 44 , 45 and artificial intelligence 46 – 48 .…”