APPLICATION OF SOFT SENSOR BASED ON PALM OIL AND CARBON BLACK-ELASTOMER ON WEARABLE DEVICES AND SOFT ROBOT MANIPULATORS FOR ENDOTRACHEAL INTUBATION APPLICATIONS

• Main Author: Marendra, Thoriq
• Format: Theses
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/74893
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Flexible electronic devices and soft robots require detection components in the form of soft sensors so they can interact with humans and soft objects. One of the most developed soft sensors is the resistive working principle because the manufacturing process is simple and has high sensitivity. Resistive soft sensors have a working mechanism in the form of a change in resistance due to external deformation. In this study, the fabrication of resistive soft sensors was carried out by mixing Ecoflex and carbon black (CB) conductive materials using a vacuum mixer. When mixing, CB particles tend to agglomerate which results in poor conductivity of the mixture, to overcome this issue, palm oil (PO) is added as an organic solvent to replace hazardous solvents, to produce a soft sensor environmentally friendly and safe for use in humans. To check the feasibility of PO as a solvent, the PO composition of Ecoflex/CB was varied (0.15-0.35 w/w). From this research, the variation of optimum PO addition is at 0.35 w/w. The performance of the PO 0.35 w/w soft sensor in the form of elongation at break is 500%, the gauge factor (GF) value indicates sensitivity is 1.9-4.21 at 0-200% strain, good repeatability and durability after 1500 cycles. With the very good performance of the soft sensor, then the soft sensor is applied to wearable devices to monitor deformations on the fingers and soft robot manipulators for endotracheal intubation application.