Olowo, UofL Team Advance Printable Tactile Sensors for Robotic Skin & Fingertip ApplICATIONS

The University of Louisville and the Louisville Automation & Robotics Research Institute, in partnership with KY NSF EPSCoR, continue to push innovations in the sensor and robotics spaces, under the auspices of our KAMPERS Track-1 partnership to advance manufacturing in Kentucky. 

A new publication in Sensors by PhD candidate Olalekan Olowo and collaborators, “Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of Inkjet-Printed Organic Piezoresistive Tactile Sensor on Flexible Substrate,” is an excellent example of the state-of-the-art discoveries produced by KAMPERS.

In this paper, the group introduces a novel tactile sensor with a unique “fingerprint” design. This sensor is printed by inkjet printers to deposit a conductive silver ink sensor electrode and an organic piezoresistive polymer. The compact size and “fingerprint” design helps it connect seamlessly into robotics, prosthetics, and human-machine interfaces. It is highly-sensitive and responsive, and according to Olowo, “opens doors to for more complex and natural human-machine interactions.”

Olowo’s paper is co-authored by Bryan Harris, Daniel Sills, Ruoshi Zhang, Andriy Sherehiy, Alireza Tofangchi, Danming Wei, and KY NSF EPSCoR Co-PI Dan Popa. 

You can read the paper in its entirety here: https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/19/8280