TITANIUM DIOXIDE/ECOFLEX COMPOSITE AS DIELECTRIC MATERIAL FOR CAPACITIVE SOFT SENSOR APPLICATION

• Main Author: Immanuel Ebenezer, Andrew
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/64865
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Soft sensor is one of the most necessary components in a soft robot which is developed as the solution to improve human-robot interactions in robotics technology development. A capacitive soft sensor is one of the mainly used soft sensors due to its simple working principle and synthesis method, as well as its high linearity and stability. Ecoflex, as the commonly employed elastomer in capacitive soft sensors (especially for mechanical stimulus), has low dielectric constant (~2.17-4.2), making the output signal relatively hard to read by a robotic system. Hence, modification strategies are necessary to improve the performance of Ecoflex as a capacitive soft sensor. In this research, Ecoflex is modified by adding TiO2 powder to Ecoflex as a dielectric material of the capacitive soft sensor. This modification increases the dielectric constant up to 37.19% with the addition of 20 wt.% TiO2. TiO2 addition also increase the gauge factor (GF) where the addition of 20 wt.% TiO2 has the highest initial GF value. Besides, there is a phenomenon where GF value decrease at certain point of strain. The higher TiO2 composition, the faster the phenomenon happen. Addition of TiO2 powder does not show any significant effect on its strength, modulus, and elongation as the component of capacitive soft sensor. In conclusion, the 5 wt.% TiO2/Ecoflex variation is the most suitable for high strain applications while the 20 wt.% TiO2/Ecoflex variation is the most suitable for low strain applications.