Knitted Cotton Fabric Strain Sensor by In-situ Polymerization of Pyrrole

Abstract

The purpose of this research work was to develop a textile-based strain sensor. A conductive textile fabric was produced by the coating of knitted cotton fabric with in-situ polymerization of polypyrrole. The sensor consists of a conductive textile as an electrode, stainless steel yarn as interconnection, Arduino Nano as a controller, HC05 Bluetooth module, and a Lithium polymer battery as a power source. For the demonstration, the sensor was placed on the upper arm and bicep stretch was performed. It was observed that the contraction of the arm muscle causes a reduction in resistance of the electrode. Therefore, change in swelling was successfully detected from the increase and drop of resistance during contraction and relaxation of the muscle. This principle could be applied to determine the status of peripheral edema, where the increase in resistance in this work indicates edema is becoming severe.