A slow-adapting microfluidic based tactile sensor

We present a microfluidic based tactile sensor mimicking the human slow-adapting mechanoreceptor. The sensor is composed of a Polyimide (PI) / Polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) multilayer structure. The device uses a hemispherical reservoir filled with electrolyte solution in PDMS layer, a microchannel in PI layer and a pair of sensing electrodes below the microchannel as the force transducer. The tactile signal is detected as the impedance change resulting predominantly from the resistance variance by the electrodes coverage of 1M NaCl solution and is measured across the electrode pair. The testing results demonstrate the device working range, various force sensing and long term signal stability.