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Shielded soft force sensors.

ABSTRACT: Force and strain sensors made of soft materials enable robots to interact intelligently with their surroundings. Capacitive sensing is widely adopted thanks to its low power consumption, fast response, and facile fabrication. Capacitive sensors are, however, susceptible to electromagnetic interference and proximity effects and thus require electrical shielding. Shielding has not been previously implemented in soft capacitive sensors due to the parasitic capacitance between the shield and sensing electrodes, which changes when the sensor is deformed. We address this crucial challenge by patterning the central sensing elastomer layer to control its compressibility. One design uses an ultrasoft silicone foam, and the other includes microchannels filled with liquid metal and air. The force resolution is sub-mN both in normal and shear directions, yet the sensor withstands large forces (>20 N), demonstrating a wide dynamic range. Performance is unaffected by nearby high DC and AC electric fields and even electric sparks.

SUBMITTER: Aksoy B

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9363457 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Shielded soft force sensors.

Aksoy Bekir B Hao Yufei Y Grasso Giulio G Digumarti Krishna Manaswi KM Cacucciolo Vito V Shea Herbert H

Nature communications 20220809 1

Force and strain sensors made of soft materials enable robots to interact intelligently with their surroundings. Capacitive sensing is widely adopted thanks to its low power consumption, fast response, and facile fabrication. Capacitive sensors are, however, susceptible to electromagnetic interference and proximity effects and thus require electrical shielding. Shielding has not been previously implemented in soft capacitive sensors due to the parasitic capacitance between the shield and sensing ...[more]

PMID: 35945227

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Project description:Flagella and cilia are cellular appendages that inherit essential functions of microbial life including sensing and navigating the environment. In order to propel a swimming microorganism they displace the surrounding fluid by means of periodic motions, while precisely timed modulations of their beating patterns enable the cell to steer towards or away from specific locations. Characterizing the dynamic forces, however, is challenging and typically relies on indirect experimental approaches. Here, we present direct in vivo measurements of the dynamic forces of motile Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cells in controlled environments. The experiments are based on partially aspirating a living microorganism at the tip of a micropipette force sensor and optically recording the micropipette's position fluctuations with high temporal and sub-pixel spatial resolution. Spectral signal analysis allows for isolating the cell-generated dynamic forces caused by the periodic motion of the flagella from background noise. We provide an analytic, elasto-hydrodynamic model for the micropipette force sensor and describe how to obtain the micropipette's full frequency response function from a dynamic force calibration. Using this approach, we measure the amplitude of the oscillatory forces during the swimming activity of individual Chlamydomonas reinhardtii cells of 26 ± 5 pN, resulting from the coordinated flagellar beating with a frequency of 49 ± 5 Hz. This dynamic micropipette force sensor technique generalizes the applicability of micropipettes as force sensors from static to dynamic force measurements, yielding a force sensitivity in the piconewton range. In addition to measurements in bulk liquid environment, we study the dynamic forces of the biflagellated microswimmer in the vicinity of a solid/liquid interface. As we gradually decrease the distance of the swimming microbe to the interface, we measure a significantly enhanced force transduction at distances larger than the maximum extent of the beating flagella, highlighting the importance of hydrodynamic interactions for scenarios in which flagellated microorganisms encounter surfaces.

Dataset Information

Shielded soft force sensors.

Publications

Shielded soft force sensors.

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