CAREER: Rigidity tuned elastomer origami tessellations for fast, reconfigurable, and soft mechanoreceptors

由橡胶、织物和其他软材料制成的机械变形传感器有望不引人注意地测量人体运动，这将导致人机界面、人机合作、主动假肢和辅助设备，供行动不便或灵巧的人使用。在这些应用中，会出现复杂的运动，如弯曲、扭转和应变。大多数软测量设计对这些变形的响应类似，如果发生多个变形，则会限制其精度。折纸图案具有平板材料无法达到的独特机械性能，是更精确测量复杂变形的有前途的解决方案。这项工作的目标是测量可伸展和软折纸的行为，并研究软折纸图案传感器是否可以区分压力、应变和曲率，以实现一类新的软变形传感器。软的折纸图案传感器将被建模和制造。将对它们的机械性能和传感性能进行表征。一所女子学院的工程专业女本科生将通过暑期和学期的研究机会参与开展这项研究。结合研究目标，该项目将鼓励中学生和教师通过一系列研讨会了解柔性传感器。该项目的研究目标是调查软材料折纸是否表现出有利于选择性或多模式应变、压力和曲率传感器的机械性能。有机硅弹性体具有柔韧性和柔顺性，这使其成为软测量应用中的优秀材料。然而，扁平弹性体传感器对曲率、应变、压力和力的响应不是特定的。改变传感器的形态，使响应偏向一个变形，可以使这些变形去耦合，同时保持弹性体的有利性能。折纸和Kirigami图案是分离变形和增加机械选择性的一种很有前途的方法。通过修改图案和折叠角度或切割角度，折纸和Kirigami镶嵌可以调整材质的泊松比和硬度。该项目有三个研究目标：1)对机械变形下的折纸图案硅橡胶进行建模和表征，2)将成功地将变形与软测量模式(例如，阻性、电容式)解耦的图案结合在一起，以及3)制造具有可变刚性折叠的折纸图案传感器，以展示可重新配置的高动态范围传感器。这项研究将增加对折纸图案硅橡胶的机械性能的基本了解。制造工作还将产生有关在有机硅弹性体中生成此类图案的新知识，以及将机械传感模式集成到柔软的三维结构中的技术。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Mechanical deformation sensors made from rubber, fabric, and other soft materials are poised to unobtrusively measure human motion, which will lead to human-machine interfaces, human-robot cooperation, active prostheses, and assistive devices for people with limited mobility or dexterity. In these applications, complex motions such as bending, twisting, and straining are present. Most soft sensor designs respond similarly to these deformations, which limits their accuracy if more than one deformation occurs. Origami patterns, which have unique mechanical properties that cannot be achieved in flat materials, are promising solutions for more accurately measuring complex deformations. The goal of this work is to measure how stretchable and soft origami behaves and to study whether soft, origami-patterned sensors can distinguish pressure, strain, and curvature to realize a new class of soft deformation sensors. Soft, origami-patterned sensors will be modeled and fabricated. Their mechanical properties and sensing performance will be characterized. Female undergraduate engineering students at a women's college will participate in carrying out this research through summer and semester-long research opportunities. In conjunction with the research objectives, this project will encourage middle school students and teachers to learn about flexible sensors through a series of workshops. The research goal of this project is to investigate whether soft material origami demonstrates mechanical properties that are advantageous for selective or multimodal strain, pressure, and curvature sensors. Silicone elastomers are flexible and compliant, which makes them excellent materials for use in soft sensing applications. Flat elastomer sensors, however, have non-specific responses to curvature, strain, pressure, and force. Changing the sensor morphology to bias the response towards one deformation may decouple these deformations while preserving the elastomer's advantageous properties. Origami and kirigami patterns are a promising approach to decoupling deformations and increasing mechanical selectivity. By modifying the pattern and fold angle or cut angle, origami and kirigami tessellations can tune the material's Poisson's ratio and stiffness. The project has three research objectives: 1) to model and characterize origami-patterned silicone elastomers under mechanical deformations, 2) to combine patterns that successfully decouple deformations with soft sensing modalities (e.g., resistive, capacitive), and 3) to fabricate origami patterned sensors with variable stiffness folds to demonstrate reconfigurable, high-dynamic range sensors. This investigation will increase fundamental understanding of the mechanical properties of origami-patterned silicone elastomers. The fabrication work will also yield new knowledge about generating such patterns in silicone elastomers and techniques to integrate mechanical sensing modalities into soft, three-dimensional structures.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.