Ransom Elliot, Chen Xiyuan, Mangram William, Nasrollahi Amir, Topac Tanay, Chang Fu-Kuo
Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
Sensors (Basel). 2024 May 27;24(11):3441. doi: 10.3390/s24113441.
An investigation was performed to develop a process to design and manufacture a 3-D smart skin with an embedded network of distributed sensors for non-developable (or doubly curved) surfaces. A smart skin is the sensing component of a smart structure, allowing such structures to gather data from their surrounding environments to make control and maintenance decisions. Such smart skins are desired across a wide variety of domains, particularly for those devices where their surfaces require high sensitivity to external loads or environmental changes such as human-assisting robots, medical devices, wearable health components, etc. However, the fabrication and deployment of a network of distributed sensors on non-developable surfaces faces steep challenges. These challenges include the conformal coverage of a target object without causing prohibitive stresses in the sensor interconnects and ensuring positional accuracy in the skin sensor deployment positions, as well as packaging challenges resulting from the thin, flexible form factor of the skin. In this study, novel and streamlined processes for making such 3-D smart skins were developed from the initial sensor network design to the final integrated skin assembly. Specifically, the process involved the design of the network itself (for which a physical simulation-based optimization was developed), the deployment of the network to a targeted 3D surface (for which a specialized tool was designed and implemented), and the assembly of the final skin (for which a novel process based on dip coating was developed and implemented.).
开展了一项研究，以开发一种用于设计和制造具有嵌入式分布式传感器网络的三维智能皮肤的工艺，该智能皮肤适用于不可展（或双曲面）表面。智能皮肤是智能结构的传感组件，使此类结构能够从周围环境收集数据，以便做出控制和维护决策。在各种各样的领域都需要这种智能皮肤，特别是对于那些表面需要对外部负载或环境变化高度敏感的设备，如辅助机器人、医疗设备、可穿戴健康组件等。然而，在不可展表面上制造和部署分布式传感器网络面临严峻挑战。这些挑战包括在不使传感器互连中产生过高应力的情况下对目标物体进行共形覆盖，确保皮肤传感器部署位置的位置精度，以及由于皮肤的薄而灵活的外形尺寸所带来的封装挑战。在本研究中，开发了从初始传感器网络设计到最终集成皮肤组件的新颖且简化的制造此类三维智能皮肤的工艺。具体而言，该工艺包括网络本身的设计（为此开发了基于物理模拟的优化方法）、将网络部署到目标三维表面（为此设计并实现了一种专用工具）以及最终皮肤的组装（为此开发并实现了一种基于浸涂的新颖工艺）。
