Sensors and Control Interface Methods Based on Triboelectric Nanogenerator in IoT Applications

This paper presents a flexible sliding sensor that is capable of generating signals for wireless controlling applications. The sensor is based on the coupling of triboelectrification and electrostatic induction effects. A signal processing circuit has been designed to process the alternating current (AC) signal generated by the sensor, which is exerted to control a mobile robot in real time. Three triboelectric-based sensors have been designed in different sizes and shapes. Two of them are based on a peak-detection mechanism with different control instructions formed from the varying number of peaks. The other octagonal-shaped sensor is based on an encoding method by changing the spacing between the strip electrodes. According to our experimental results, the triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG)-based sensors have high recognition accuracy that is higher than 97%. The flexibility of the sensor enables it to be attached to different devices, such as mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. The TENG-based sensors themselves can generate signals without an external power supply, which has a great advantage toward the Internet of Things (IoT) applications.