Sensing skin for detecting wing deformation with embedded soft strain sensors

This work presents the design and fabrication of a flexible wing skin with an array of embedded soft strain sensors for detecting the deformation of an airplane wing. The fabricated skin is composed of soft sensors and wires encapsulated by an elastomeric sheet. The soft strain sensors comprised of conductive elastomeric comb capacitors provide enough sensitivity to detect the mechanical strain changes of the wing and a process was developed to integrate these sensors into the skin. Soft electrical wires made of the same conductive elastomer were used for connecting the sensors to an external read-out circuit that was then connected to a computer for analysis. Experimental results from both single sensors and the wing skin show a clear relationship to wing deflection.