Pomegranate-Inspired Biomimetic Pressure Sensor Arrays With a Wide Range and High Linear Sensitivity for Human–Machine Interaction

Abstract

Flexible, highly sensitive, easy fabricating process, low-cost pressure sensors are the trend for flexible electronic devices. Despite the tremendous progress in recent years, it is still challenging to prepare pressure sensors with high sensitivity, high stability, and fast responsiveness. In this study, we report a simple and low-cost method for the preparation of novel pressure sensors. Inspired by the pomegranate structure, a 3-D porous structure consisting of polystyrene (PS) microspheres filled with reduced graphene oxide (rGO) paper is proposed. This pressure sensor has high linear sensitivity (1.41 kPa <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">−1</sup> in the pressure range of 0–50 kPa), high stability (1000 cycles), and quick response time (~20 ms). Furthermore, a robotic arm interacting control system based on pressure sensor arrays is constructed, which demonstrates the far-reaching potential of pressure sensors in human–machine interaction. Therefore, this work provides a low-cost and effective method for preparing high linear sensitivity pressure sensors.