High-Performance Flexible Pressure Sensor Based on Biomimetic Grasshopper Leg Structure for Wearable Devices and Human-Machine Interaction

Abstract

High-performance flexible pressure sensors are crucial for achieving precise tactile sensing and play an indispensable role in human motion detection and human-machine interaction. In this study, a new low-cost flexible capacitive pressure sensor (CPS) is designed using the bionic microstructure of a grasshopper leg with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) as the dielectric layer. Through finite element simulation and structural optimization, the CPS can achieve high sensitivity (0.925 kPa<inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$^{-{1}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>), a wide pressure sensing range (5 Pa–388 kPa), fast response time (30 ms), excellent consistency across sensor batches, and outstanding stability. Additionally, the study demonstrates the CPS’s capabilities in intelligent robots manipulator operations, human hand grasping objects with tactile feedback, human motion posture detection, and information transfer of Morse code in practical applications. Given the outstanding performance of the CPS, it is poised to be a preferred choice for future wearable devices and human-machine interaction.