• Proceedings of the Korean Operations and Management Science Society Conference
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• 1996.04a
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• pp.141-146
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• 1996

Hand posture and force, which define aspects of the way an object is grasped, are features of robotics manipulation. A means for specifying these grasping "flavors" has been developed that uses an instrumented glove equipped with joint and force sensors. The new grasp specification system is being used at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) in a Virtual Reality based Point-and-Direct(VR-PAD) robotics implementation. In the Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) Laboratory at Penn State, hand posture and force data were collected for manipulating bricks and other items that require varying amounts of force at multiple pressure points. The feasibility of measuring desired grasp characteristics was demonstrated for a modified Cyberglove impregnated with FSR (Force Sensitive Resistor) pressure sensors in the fingertips. A joint/force model relating the parameters of finger articulation and pressure to various lifting tasks was validated for the instrumented "wired" glove. Operators using such a modified glove may ultimately be able to configure robot grasping tasks in environments involving hazardous waste remediation, flexible manufacturing, space operations and other flexible robotics applications. In each case, the VR-PAD approach improved the computational and delay problems of real-time multiple-degree-of-freedom force feedback telemanipulation.ck telemanipulation.

• Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea
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• v.15 no.2
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• pp.165-176
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• 1996

Hand posture and force, which define aspects of the way an object is grasped, are features of robotic manipulation. A means for specifying these grasping "flavors" has been developed that uses an instrumented glove equipped with joint and force sensors. The new grasp specification system is being used at the Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) in a Virtual Reality based Point-and-Direct (VR-PAD) robotics implementation. In the Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) Laboratory at Penn State, hand posture and force data were collected for manipulating bricks and other items that require varying amounts of force at multiple pressure points. The feasibility of measuring desired grasp characteristics was demonstrated for a modified Cyberglove impregnated with FSR (Force Sensitive Resistor) pressure sensors in the fingertips. A joint/force model relating the parameters of finger articulation and pressure to various lifting tasks was validated for the instrumented "wired" glove. Operators using such a modified glove may ultimately be able to configure robot grasping tasks in environments involving hazardous waste remediation, flexible manufactruing, space operations and other flexible robotics applications. In each case, the VR-PAD approach improved the computational and delay problems of real-time multiple- degree-of-freedom force feedback telemanipulation.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.186-191
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• 2018

Smart textile industries have been precipitously developed and extended to electronic textiles and wearable devices in recent years. In particular, owing to an increasingly aging society, the elderly healthcare field has been highlighted in the smart device industries, and pressure sensors can be utilized in various elderly healthcare products such as flooring, mattress, and vital-sign measuring devices. Furthermore, elderly healthcare products need to be more lightweight and flexible. To fulfill those needs, textile-based pressure sensors is considered to be an attractive solution. In this research, to apply a textile to the second layer using a pressure sensing device, a novel type of conductive textile was fabricated using vapor phase polymerization of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT). Vapor phase polymerization is suitable for preparing the conductive textile because the reaction can be controlled simply under various conditions and does not need high-temperature processing. The morphology of the obtained PEDOT-conductive textile was observed through the Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscope (FESEM). Moreover, the resistance was measured using an ohmmeter and was confirmed to be adjustable to various resistance ranges depending on the concentration of the oxidant solution and polymerization conditions. A 3-layer 81-point multi-pressure sensor was fabricated using the PEDOT-conductive textile prepared herein. A 3D-viewer program was developed to evaluate the sensitivity and multi-pressure recognition of the textile-based multi-pressure sensor. Finally, we confirmed the possibility that PEDOT-conductive textiles could be utilized by pressure sensors.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Industry Convergence
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• v.23 no.6_2
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• pp.1059-1065
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• 2020

Demand for pressure sensors is increasing in various fields such as machinery, healthcare and medical care. A recent study is being conducted to create sensors that are more sensitive and have longer linear sections based on measurement principles. In this paper, a film-type sensor with a membrane structure was developed to measure the pressure distributed in the axial direction of a hot roll laminator. Performance of sensors was evaluated by resistance and durability according to membrane diameter. The resistance of the membrane sensor varies according to the contact state and contact area of the electrode. Therefore, the membrane diameter selection is important. Experiments showed the most pronounced variation in resistance under pressure at 8 mm in diameter of membrane. Reliability evaluation of sensors was carried out at room temperature and high temperature. The pressure on the sensor was pressurized 1000 times to measure the initial resistance and the resistance after the evaluation to analyze the change. Sensors showed stable results with low resistance changes of 5.15% and 6.27%, respectively. A large area sensor manufactured using the developed sensor also showed reliable results.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.31 no.2
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• pp.149-156
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• 2014

Flexible tactile sensors can provide valuable feedback to intelligent robots about the environment. This is especially important when the robots, e.g., service robots, are sharing the workspace with human. This paper presents a flexible tactile sensor that was manufactured by direct writing technique, which is one of 3D printing method with multi-walled carbon nano-tubes. The signal processing system consists of two parts: analog circuits to amplify and filter the sensor output and digital signal processing algorithms to reduce undesired noise. Finally, experimental setup is implemented and evaluated to identify the characteristics of the flexible tactile sensor system. This paper showed that this type of sensors can detect the initiation and termination of contacts with appropriate signal processing.

• Journal of Sensor Science and Technology
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.205-215
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• 2019

A flexible polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composite prototype with high piezoelectricity and force sensitivity was constructed, and its huge potential for applications such as biomechanical energy harvesting, self-powered health monitoring system, and pressure sensors was proved. The crystallization, piezoelectric, and electrical properties of the composites were characterized using an X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiment and customized experimental setups. The composite can sustain up to 100% strain, which is a huge improvement over monolithic PVDF fibers and other PVDF-based composites in the literature. The Young's modulus is 1.64 MPa, which is closely matched with the flexibility of the human skin, and shows the possibility for integrating PVDF/PDMS composites into wearable devices and implantable medical devices. The $300{\mu}m$ thick composite has a 14% volume fraction of PVDF fibers and produces high piezoelectricity with piezoelectric charge constants $d_{31}=19pC/N$ and $d_{33}=34pC/N$, and piezoelectric voltage constants $g_{31}=33.9mV/N$ and $g_{33}=61.2mV/N$. Under a 10 Hz actuation, the output voltage was measured at 190 mVpp, which is the largest output signal generated from a PVDF fiber-based prototype.

• Journal of Institute of Control, Robotics and Systems
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.583-588
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• 2015

Flexible tactile sensors can provide valuable feedback to intelligent robots regarding the environment around them. This is especially important when robots such as, service robots share a workspace with humans. This paper presents a contact force measurement algorithm of a flexible tactile sensor. This sensor is manufactured by a direct-writing technique, which is one 3D printing method, using multi-walled carbon nano-tubes. An analog signal processing circuit has been designed and implemented to reduce noise contained in the sensor output. In addition, a digital version of the Butterworth filter was implemented by software running on a microcontroller. Through various experiments, characteristics of the sensor system have been identified. Based on three traits, an algorithm to detect the contact and measure the contact force has been developed. The entire system showed a promising prospect to detect the contact over a large and curved area.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.32 no.11
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• pp.508-514
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• 2022

Piezoelectric composite films which are enabled by inorganic piezoelectric nanomaterials-embedded polymer, have attracted enormous attention as a sustainable power source for low powered electronics, because of their ease of fabrication and flexible nature. However, the absorption of applied stress by the soft polymeric matrices is a major issue that must be solved to expand the fields of piezoelectric composite applications. Herein, a flexible and porous piezoelectric composite (piezoelectric sponge) comprised of BaTiO₃ nanoparticles and polydimethylsiloxane was developed using template method to enhance the energy conversion efficiency by minimizing the stress that vanishes into the polymer matrix. In the porous structure, effective stress transfer can occur between the piezoelectric active materials in compression mode due to direct contact between the ceramic particles embedded in the pore-polymer interface. The piezoelectric sponge with 30 wt% of BaTiO₃ particles generated an open-circuit voltage of ~12 V and a short-circuit current of ~150 nA. A finite element method-based simulation was conducted to theoretically back up that the piezoelectric output performance was effectively improved by introducing the sponge structure. Furthermore, to demonstrate the feasibility of pressure detecting applications using the BaTiO₃ particles-embedded piezoelectric sponge, the composite was arranged in a 3 × 3 array and integrated into a single pressure sensor. The fabricated sensor array successfully detected the shape of the applied pressure. This work can provide a cost-effective, biocompatible, and structural strategy for realizing piezoelectric composite-based energy harvesters and self-powered sensors with improved energy conversion efficiency.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.31-35
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• 2017

We have fabricated flexible and stretchable pressure sensors using silver nanowires (AgNWs) and analyzed their electric responses. AgNWs are spray coated directly onto uncured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) such that AgNWs penetrate into the uncured PDMS, enhancing the adhesion properties of AgNWs. However, the single-layered AgNW sensor exhibits unstable electric response and low pressure sensitivity. To tackle it, we have coated a conductive polymer, poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrene sulfonate) (PEDOT:PSS) onto the AgNW layer. Such a hybrid bilayer sensor ensures a stable electric response because the over-coating layer of PEDOT:PSS effectively suppresses the protrusion of AgNWs from PDMS during release. To enhance the sensitivity further, we have also fabricated a stacked bilayer AgNW sensor. However, its electric response varies depending sensitively on the initial overlap pressure.

• Electronics and Telecommunications Trends
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.11-20
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• 2020

With the widespread use of high-performance electronics and mobile communications, electromagnetic interference (EMI) shielding has become crucial for protection against malfunctioning of electronic equipment and harmful effects to human health. In addition, smart sensor technologies will be rapidly developed in untact (non-contact) environments and personal healthcare fields. Herein, we introduce our recently developed technologies for flexible multifunctional EMI shielding, and highly sensitive wearable pressure-strain and humidity sensors realized using low-dimensional nanomaterials.