Design, development and analysis of a conductive fabric based flexible and stretchable strain sensor

Abstract

This article presents the design, fabrication and characterisation of an elastomeric flexible and stretchable strain sensor using a variable resistance fabric. This provides a viable alternative to the microfluid and nanoparticle based flexible strain sensors involving complex fabrication techniques. A nylon-spandex based stretchable fabric serves as the sensing element which is in turn embedded in an elastomeric substrate. The fabricated sensor is experimentally characterised for determining the linearity, hysteresis, stretchability and gauge factor. The Finite Element Method based simulations to predict the operational force range of the sensor corresponding to its strain sensing range has been validated with the experimental results. These sensors have a wide range of potential applications in the constantly developing field of compliant robotics and mechanisms. In future works, these sensors will be utilized in the biomechanical analysis of human movements to track the various joint parameters.