Force sensing is spreading in many fields, spanning from biomedicine to robotics. Commercial and traditional solutions include strain gauges and micro-electro-mechanical systems, that however exhibit drawbacks related to their electrical nature, fragility, and not flexible structure. Therefore, in this work, a flexible force sensor based on the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) embedded in a silicone patch is proposed and characterized. Silicone embedding represents the solution for handling a soft, stretchable, safe, and skin-mountable force sensor suitable for human interactions. Force tests are reported and demonstrate the silicone patch capability to make the FBG sensitive to force variations with good linearity and a force sensitivity of 17.6 pm/N. Moreover, the performances of the developed patch in terms of temperature and strain are compared with respect to the more traditional FBGs embedded in 3D printed PLA patch. The comparison reveals the strong influence, and complementarity, of the patch materials employed for the embedding on the sensing potentialities of the final devices.
Silicone Embedded FBGs for Force Sensing / Di Palma, P., De Vita, E., Iadicicco, A., Campopiano, S.. - 1005:(2023), pp. 160-165. (53rd Annual Meeting of the Italian Electronics Society, SIE 2022 ita 2022) [10.1007/978-3-031-26066-7_25].
Silicone Embedded FBGs for Force Sensing
Di Palma, P.;Iadicicco, A.;Campopiano, S.
2023
Abstract
Force sensing is spreading in many fields, spanning from biomedicine to robotics. Commercial and traditional solutions include strain gauges and micro-electro-mechanical systems, that however exhibit drawbacks related to their electrical nature, fragility, and not flexible structure. Therefore, in this work, a flexible force sensor based on the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) embedded in a silicone patch is proposed and characterized. Silicone embedding represents the solution for handling a soft, stretchable, safe, and skin-mountable force sensor suitable for human interactions. Force tests are reported and demonstrate the silicone patch capability to make the FBG sensitive to force variations with good linearity and a force sensitivity of 17.6 pm/N. Moreover, the performances of the developed patch in terms of temperature and strain are compared with respect to the more traditional FBGs embedded in 3D printed PLA patch. The comparison reveals the strong influence, and complementarity, of the patch materials employed for the embedding on the sensing potentialities of the final devices.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
