Non-planar Printing for Stretchable Tactile Sensors

Tactile sensors are gaining significance in numerous research fields, encompassing prosthetics, human-robot interaction, and manipulation. Recent advancements in soft and stretchable tactile skin for diverse applications impose an increasing demand for advanced printing methods to deploy such skins on curved surfaces like fingers or robot bodies. Our study introduces a novel non-planar printing method for tactile sensors on curved surfaces. This includes the design of a silicone and liquid conductive ink-based sensor, its manufacturing with our novel transformation that utilizes a liquid multi-material printer setup, and the sensor characterization under various conditions. Our findings demonstrate the feasibility of printing skin-like force sensors directly onto curved objects, with potential applications in the aforementioned research domains.