6.3 Biomimetic Skin

౪

119

Figure 6.9: Fabrication scheme of a multifunctional layered sensor (with permission from [30]): (a) Fabrica-

tion of a capacitive pressure sensor array with a dielectric elastomer placed between electrodes; (b) fabrica-

tion of temperature sensor array by drop casting CNTs over contact electrodes; (c) integration of tempera-

ture and pressure sensor layers.

perature sensor using CNTs drop casted over contact electrodes is placed. Those two

layers are now a film that could, for example, be used as the “skin” of robots.

In a different approach, the combination and management of a large amount of

pressure sensors has been investigated [31] (Figure 6.10). Here, an integrated circuit is

designed to manage a large amount of sensors on a chip, concentrating on how all of the

sensors can be packaged, networked, and their signal transduced on a chip. It might be

interesting to combine that management with the earlier sensor designs, since in skin a

large amount of pressure and other sensors need to be managed and analyzed.

In skin, the sensing of temperature or pressure leads to a related action in the body,

which could be an adjustment to maintain homeostasis, a movement, or an action the

brain thought of. This responsiveness to the environment has been mimicked in mate-

rials in various ways with a variety of polymeric structures, called “smart” materials

([32] and references therein) (Figure 6.11, Figure 6.12). The stimuli for response are most