An experimental study of biologically inspired artificial skin sensor under static loading and dynamic stimuli

This paper presents an experimental study of the bio-inspired artificial skin consisting of silicone and embedded strain gages, in which silicone imitates the epidermis and dermis, and strain gages mimic corpuscles. The strain gages are embedded in silicone under different configurations like corpuscle in humans skin. Both static displacement and dynamic excitations are applied in arbitrary positions, with different magnitudes and frequencies. The responses are observed by measuring the output signals from strain gages. Comparison with FEM simulation of static displacement shows intuitive agreement. The responses to dynamic excitation in typical frequency range of human somatosensors are obtained both experimentally and with simulation of dynamic modeling. We found that each configuration has advantages and disadvantages. This paper shows how strain gages embedded in silicone will behave in response to both static and dynamic excitations, and suggests modeling and fundamental concepts to design a bio-inspired artificial skin sensor.