Flexible Intelligent Sensing System for Plane Complex Strain Monitoring

Flexible strain sensing system has a broad application prospect in the field of personalized monitoring. Here, a flexible intelligent sensing system based on the synergistic effect of sensor technology, communication technology, and computer technology has been designed to monitor the strain distribution of the measured objects directly. The system consists of several sensing modules that can be customized according to actual needs, each of which is composed of flexible sensing arrays that can be closely attached to the surface of the object in different directions to obtain tiny strain signals. The single sensor using PDMS as the flexible substrate and Ni-Au metal thin film as the sensing layer is easy to prepare and adjust the performance. By artificially fabricating bioinspired parallel cut-through channel cracks on the metal thin film, high sensitivity in a small sensing range (gauge factor value up to 4500 for 1.4% strain), fast response time (25 ms), and excellent mechanical stability of nearly 2000 cycles of strain sensors are achieved. Meanwhile, combined with a PI-based ultra-thin flexible signal processing circuit, the system exhibits promoted flexibility, higher sensitivity, better adaptability to complex environments, and finally displays the 2D mapping of strain distribution precisely in each part of the measured object in real-time on a computer. This flexible intelligent strain sensing system can work for deformation detection, damage monitoring, motion tracking, and other strain sensing fields.