Artificial Ruffini sensor using CNT/ecoflex composite for human movement monitoring

초록

We report a carbon nanotube (CNT)/Ecoflex composite strain sensor inspired by structure and function of Ruffini corpuscles, which sense skin stretch. The CNT sheet impregnated by the polymer is used as the piezoresistive material for sensing the strain, mimicking the nerve fibers generating the signal by skin stretching in the Ruffini receptor. Here, we demonstrate that the developed artificial Ruffini sensor (ARS) showed a wide working range (similar to 70 %), high sensitivity (GF: similar to 38), high linearity at 70 % strain (R-squared: 0.967), and long-lasting durability (12,000-cycle). The insensitivity to normal pressure and wide-band frequency performances suggests that the ARS can effectively mimic those of mechanoreceptors. The sensor was affixed to areas prone to seizures in humans to measure subtle strain changes within a moderate frequency range, demonstrating the ability of the ARS to monitor rapid and minute human movements. This ARS is potentially available for the various mechanosensing applications, including wearable robotics, and human-machine interface device that connect humans and their surrounding environments mutually.

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