Soft Optical Waveguide Sensors Tuned by Reflective Pigmentation for Robotic Applications

Abstract

Soft robotics has attracted a huge amount of interest in the recent decade or so, be it either actuators or sensors. Recently, a soft optical waveguide sensor has proven its effectiveness for various sensing applications such as strain, force, and bending measurements. The operation principle of the waveguide is simple, but the present technology is far too much complex to manufacture the waveguide. The waveguide fails to attract various practical applications in comparison to other types of sensors despite its superior safety and ease working principle. This study pursues to develop the soft sensors based on the optical phenomena so that the waveguide can be easily manufactured and its design can be conducted. Several physical properties of the waveguide are confirmed through the repetitive experiments in the aspects of strain, force, and bending of the waveguide. Finally, the waveguide sensor is embedded inside the actuator to verify the effectiveness of the proposed waveguide as well as to extend the application fields of the waveguide sensor.