Flexible strain sensor with a hat-shaped structure for in situ measurement of 3D deformation

Flexible strain sensors that are currently available are mainly used in human motion recognition and medical health detection applications, and there is still an urgent need for sensors to realize real-time monitoring of the 3D deformation of industrial and agricultural products. In this work, a flexible strain sensor with a hat-shaped structure was fabricated using a molding technique to perform in situ measurement of 3D deformation. An algorithm for resistance change detection and linear calibration equations were proposed to enable analysis of the deformation data and calculation of local shape changes. The sensor was applied to monitor the growth deformation of a kumquat fruit, and the results were highly consistent with the algorithm. The proposed technique has great potential for application to 3D deformation detection of flexible objects.

Automated summary

The currently available flexible strain sensors are mainly used for human motion recognition and medical health detection, while there is an urgent need for sensors to realize real-time monitoring of the 3D deformation of industrial and agricultural products. In this study, a flexible strain sensor with a hat-shaped structure was fabricated to perform in situ measurement of 3D deformation. An algorithm for resistance change detection and linear calibration equations were proposed to analyze the deformation data and calculate local shape changes. The sensor was applied to monitor the growth deformation of a kumquat fruit with highly consistent results. The proposed technique has great potential for application to 3D deformation detection of flexible objects.