High sensitivity tactile sensors with ultrabroad linear range based on gradient hybrid structure for gesture recognition and precise grasping

Tactile sensors simultaneously with high sensitivity and ultrabroad linear range are crucial for skin-like dexterous manipulation of robots and prosthetics, which is not realized in previous research. Therefore, achieving linearity and high sensitivity simultaneously over a wide pressure range remains a major challenge. To solve this issue, a gradient pore/pyramid hybrid structured (GPPHS) conductive composite film is designed and fabricated with gradient compression characteristic and high structural compression properties, which show improved the sensitivity and extended the linear range. The GPPHS based tactile sensor reveals a high sensitivity of 40.12 kPa−1 over an ultrawide linearity range up to 1000 kPa, which is first largest linear range so far reported. Further, a gesture recognition smart glove, prosthetic hand tactile sensing system and a flexible sensing array based on GPPHS based tactile sensor are developed, and demonstrate unique gesture tracking characteristics, precise grasping ability and multi-touch sensing capacity.