I-Corps: RoboSense - Artificial Tactile Sensors for Prosthetic Applications

人造触觉皮肤在上肢假肢的“触觉”中起着至关重要的作用。一般来说，上肢截肢者的义肢由于感知信息不足而无法正确握住物体。由于很难准确地识别物体是如何被抓住的，这种控制力的缺乏导致截肢者经常掉下抓住的物体。最近的调查显示，截肢者希望能够自动控制抓取物体，以帮助防止滑倒。然而，检测和防止抓取物体滑动的控制是一个挑战，这是假肢手的一个主要痛点。目前大多数商业化的上肢假肢都不智能，也就是说，它们缺乏感觉部件，尽管它们相当昂贵。拟议中的人造触觉传感器将产生巨大的市场影响，因为它们将提供更符合人体工程学和美学的手，具有更高的功能。这将使截肢者在生理和心理上得到更大的满足。传感器的低成本将降低假手的价格，更多的上肢丧失者将能够克服相关的创伤，恢复有收入的就业，过上更充实的社交生活。采用新型压力/温度敏感聚合物复合材料和混合3D打印工艺，提出了一种可拉伸的多层触觉传感器。该传感器不仅可以检测物体的法向力和剪切力，还可以检测物体的温度。这种传感器是通过3D打印皮肤状橡胶材料、底部可拉伸电极、压力/温度敏感聚合物复合材料、顶部可拉伸电极和皮肤材料而开发的。由于建议的传感器可以使用3D打印在尺寸和形状上完全定制，因此它们可以适合所需的假手。该传感器可以为截肢者提供足够的感知信息，用于上肢义肢的高功能操作。智能方面的优点包括人工触觉传感器的3D打印技术的进步，以及建议的传感器在“智能”上肢假肢中的应用。

Artificial tactile skins play a critical role in 'sense of touch' for upper limb prosthetics. In general, the prostheses in upper limb amputees lack in holding an object correctly due to insufficient sensing information. This dearth of control causes amputees to often drop grasped objects since it is hard to recognize precisely how the object is grasped. Recent surveys show that amputees desire automatic control of grasping objects to assist prevention of slip. However, the control of detection and prevention of grasped objects from slipping is a challenge, which is a major pain point in the prosthetic hands. Most of current commercial upper-limb prosthetics are not smart, that is they lack sensory components, although they are quite expensive. The suggested artificial tactile sensors will have a huge market impact as they will provide more ergonomic and aesthetic hands with higher functionality. This will allow amputees greater physical and psychological satisfaction. The lower cost of the sensors will reduce the price of prosthetic hands and more individuals with upper limb loss will be able overcome the associated trauma, resume gainful employment and lead a more fulfilling social life.A stretchable multi-layer tactile sensor is suggested with a new developed pressure/temperature-sensitive polymer composite and hybrid 3D printing process. The suggested sensor can detect not only normal and shear forces, but temperature of objects. This sensor has been developed by 3D printing of a skin-like rubber material, bottom stretchable electrodes, pressure/temperature-sensitive polymer composite, top stretchable electrodes and skin material. Since the suggested sensors can be fully customized in size and shape using 3D printing, they can fit to desired prosthetic hands. This sensor can provide the amputee with enough sensing information for the high-functionality manipulation of the upper limb prosthetics. Intellectual merits include advancement of 3D printing technologies for artificial tactile sensors and application of the suggested sensors to 'smart' upper limb prosthetics.