Flexible pressure sensors, robot hands, and methods of fabrication

Abstract

Flexible pressure sensors, robot hands, and methods of fabrication. Such a flexible pressure sensor includes a substrate layer having of a plurality of 3D printed layers, and a sensing element layer including a conductive conjugated polymer conformally coated on an exterior surface of the substrate layer. Pressure induced deformations of the exterior surface layer cause detectable changes in electrical current applied across the sensing element layer. In one method, a flexible pressure sensor may be fabricated by forming a substrate layer by additive manufacturing, and then conformally coating the substrate layer with a conjugated polymer by oxidative chemical vapor deposition. The substrate layer may have a plurality of protrusions extending from a base surface. The protrusions may be single-scale sensor protrusions or multiscale sensor protrusions. A robot hand may incorporate the flexible pressure sensor.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.