Final Year Project 2017/2018

Flexible Tactile Sensor Based On Reduced Graphene Oxide And Polydimethylsiloxane

Abstract

Fabrication of flexible tactile sensor has been extensively investigated for various applications in robotic, biomedical and automotive fields. Although many research works have been proposing various kinds of tactile sensor design, there is still room for improvement, especially on the simplicity of the structure and understanding of the device operation. In this work, simple tactile sensor was fabricated using reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS). The proposed sensor is made from two PDMS layers attached with rGO film and copper electrodes. The rGO film parameters dependence needs to be clarified for designing the optimum device structure. Tactile sensors with rGO film deposited using dispersion concentration varied from 0.4 to 1 mg/ml were fabricated and analyzed. The fabricated sensors were characterized under application of force between 0.5 to 1.4 N. The sensor resistance decreased as the applied force increased. This is due to the increase of contact area between rGO and electrode. Real time response test confirmed the device functionality. Sensor with rGO formed from 0.8 mg/ml gave the highest sensitivity at 10.3 MΩ/N. The proposed flexible sensor structure can be further studied to achieve better performance so that it is suitable for any applications.

Problem Statements

Most of the tactile sensor proposed are complicated and consists of many mechanical layers.
There is less amount of study on the dependent of rGO thickness to sensitivity.

Objectives

To fabricate a flexible tactile sensor using Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and reduced graphene oxide. PDMS as a force transmission or force concentration medium and sensor protection layer.
To investigate the relationship between the thickness of reduced graphene oxide and the performance of tactile sensor. The performance stated here is the sensitivity, linearity and repeatability of the tactile sensor.