Facile Fabrication of Highly Soft Tactile Sensor Based on Porous Sponge with Geometry Effect on Sensing Characteristics

Abstract

The unique property of three-dimensional (3D) functional porous sponge which shows excellent electrical performance and softness has drawn great attention for developing tactile sensors. A facile fabrication of porous sponge sensors dip-coating polyurethane (PU) sponge with carbon black (CB) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) is hereby presented. By leveraging local strain concentration of soft sponge, we design three shapes of PU sponge. The electrical conductivity and sensitivity of the sensor will be influenced by the demonstrated geometry parameters. The developed tactile sensor with geometry effect on sensing characteristics has promising application in human activity monitoring and human-robot interaction.