TY - GEN
T1 - Biologically inspired multi-layered synthetic skin for tactile feedback in prosthetic limbs
AU - Osborn, Luke
AU - Nguyen, Harrison
AU - Betthauser, Joseph
AU - Kaliki, Rahul
AU - Thakor, Nitish
N1 - Funding Information:
This work is supported by the grant R44NS065495 from the National Institutes of Health.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2016 IEEE.
PY - 2016/10/13
Y1 - 2016/10/13
N2 - The human body offers a template for many state-of-the-art prosthetic devices and sensors. In this work, we present a novel, sensorized synthetic skin that mimics the natural multi-layered nature of mechanoreceptors found in healthy glabrous skin to provide tactile information. The multi-layered sensor is made up of flexible piezoresistive textiles that act as force sensitive resistors (FSRs) to convey tactile information, which are embedded within a silicone rubber to resemble the compliant nature of human skin. The top layer of the synthetic skin is capable of detecting small loads less than 5 N whereas the bottom sensing layer responds reliably to loads over 7 N. Finite element analysis (FEA) of a simplified human fingertip and the synthetic skin was performed. Results suggest similarities in behavior during loading. A natural tactile event is simulated by loading the synthetic skin on a prosthetic limb. Results show the sensors' ability to detect applied loads as well as the ability to simulate neural spiking activity based on the derivative and temporal differences of the sensor response. During the tactile loading, the top sensing layer responded 0.24 s faster than the bottom sensing layer. A synthetic biologically-inspired skin such as this will be useful for enhancing the functionality of prosthetic limbs through tactile feedback.
AB - The human body offers a template for many state-of-the-art prosthetic devices and sensors. In this work, we present a novel, sensorized synthetic skin that mimics the natural multi-layered nature of mechanoreceptors found in healthy glabrous skin to provide tactile information. The multi-layered sensor is made up of flexible piezoresistive textiles that act as force sensitive resistors (FSRs) to convey tactile information, which are embedded within a silicone rubber to resemble the compliant nature of human skin. The top layer of the synthetic skin is capable of detecting small loads less than 5 N whereas the bottom sensing layer responds reliably to loads over 7 N. Finite element analysis (FEA) of a simplified human fingertip and the synthetic skin was performed. Results suggest similarities in behavior during loading. A natural tactile event is simulated by loading the synthetic skin on a prosthetic limb. Results show the sensors' ability to detect applied loads as well as the ability to simulate neural spiking activity based on the derivative and temporal differences of the sensor response. During the tactile loading, the top sensing layer responded 0.24 s faster than the bottom sensing layer. A synthetic biologically-inspired skin such as this will be useful for enhancing the functionality of prosthetic limbs through tactile feedback.
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U2 - 10.1109/EMBC.2016.7591757
DO - 10.1109/EMBC.2016.7591757
M3 - Conference contribution
C2 - 28269305
AN - SCOPUS:85009114629
T3 - Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS
SP - 4622
EP - 4625
BT - 2016 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2016
PB - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
T2 - 38th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBC 2016
Y2 - 16 August 2016 through 20 August 2016
ER -