A Soft Fluidic Sensor-Actuator for Active Sensing of Force and Displacement in Biomedical Applications

Achieving compact and biocompatible actuators with sensing capabilities is a key challenge for the safety critical and highly patient-specific biomedical field. In this study, a compact and versatile soft fluidic sensor-actuator capable of measuring both force and displacement in static and dynamic conditions is presented. Pressure and resistance are shown to be interchangeable in predicting load and sensor-actuator height, and showed good repeatability and distinction between the loaded and constrained conditions tested. Furthermore the sensor-actuator is demonstrated in a probe application and showed comparable findings to a tensile test machine when tested on three objects of varying stiffness. Overall, this sensor-actuator has the potential to be a key building block for biomedical robots that require large expansion, as well as continuous monitoring of both displacement and force.