A Flexible Tactile Sensor With Dual-Interlocked Structure for Broad Range Force Sensing and Gaming Applications

This article presents a novel flexible tactile sensor by using skin-like dual-interlocked structure to improve both the sensitivity and force detection range. The fully elastomeric graphene/carbon nanotube/silicon rubber nanocomposites are synthesized and used as a sensing material. The sandwich skin-like dual-interlocked structure enables the tactile sensor to easily transform external mechanical stimuli into tensile strain of the sensing material. A low-cost fabrication method and procedure is proposed to fabricate the flexible tactile sensor. The fabricated tactile sensor has $3\times3$ (= 9) sensing units and features extremely high flexibility. Experimental tests showed that the developed tactile sensor has a linear and high sensitivity of 0.767 N ⁻¹ for a wide range of force (0–25 N) characterization. The tactile sensor is also tested with good dynamic response, good repeatability, and long serving life. Then, the flexible tactile sensor was worn on human foot to monitor body standing posture and large force sensing and further served as an extended interface for computer games’ application. The results indicated that our developed flexible tactile sensor would have a great potential in human–machine interface of wearable sensors for augmented reality, intelligent robotics, and prosthetics.