Fabrication of a Flexible Electric Skin Using a Bionic Cell and Study of Its Sensing Ability

Imitating the structure and function of the Pacinian corpuscle in the human body, a Bionic Cell (BC) with a liquid core was designed and made with polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), and an Electronic Skin (ES) sensor was successfully obtained by embedding the BCs into silicone rubber. The passive sensing ability of the ES for surface vibration pressure was measured. The results showed that the ES could detect waveform, frequency, amplitude and other parameters of the surface, and it exhibited not only a high sensitivity of 0.46563 fc/Pa, but also a large pressure measurement range of 0.6 Pa-6014 Pa. A falling real object impact experiment was carried out, and the results indicated that the ES output charge was linearly related to the falling height of the object and logarithmically related to the mass of the object. Then, a crawling insect experiment and human pulse experiment were performed to study the perception ability of the ES to irregular pressure. Due to its special structure, simple fabrication process, and high sensitivity wide measurement range, the ES fabricated in this paper is expected to be used as robot skin with tactile perception ability in the near future.

Automated summary

A Bionic Cell (BC) and an Electronic Skin (ES) sensor were designed with high sensitivity and a wide measurement range to detect waveform, frequency, and amplitude of surface pressure. The ES has the potential to be used as robot skin with tactile perception ability in the near future.