Highly Sensitive and Wide-Range Flexible Bionic Tactile Sensors Inspired by the Octopus Sucker Structure

Recently, flexible tactile sensors have been widely concerned in many fields, including healthcare monitoring devices and wearable electronics. However, the fabrication of capacitive bionic tactile sensors with a wide linear sensing range and high sensitivity is a major difficulty. A flexible bionic sensor based on the octopus sucker microstructure that improves sensing performance by constructing a biomimetic body with a good microstructure was proposed in this study. The effect of the characteristic parameters of the sensor structure on the sensitivity is studied by simulations and experiments, and the sensor structure is optimized. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed octopus-inspired tactile sensor has a high sensitivity of 0.636 kPa–1 and a wide linear sensing range (8 Pa-500 kPa). Moreover, the tactile sensor has a rapid response time (∼40 ms), excellent repeatability, and outstanding durability (>6000 cycles), making it a reliable platform for monitoring human movements and bionic manipulator grasping objects. This study provides bionic tactile sensors with significant potential for innovative applications in future intelligent robotics and electronic skins.