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Article
Soft Prosthetic Forefinger Tactile Sensing via a String of Intact Single Mode Optical Fiber
IEEE Sensors Journal
  • Yang Du
  • Qingbo Yang, Missouri University of Science and Technology
  • Jie Huang, Missouri University of Science and Technology
Abstract

We report a prosthetic forefinger with distributed tactile sensing capability based on an embedded single mode fiber (SMF) sensor. We developed a human-size prosthetic forefinger by using soft silicon rubber via a fast wax-casting procedure. A strand of SMF was directly embedded along the palmar side of the prosthetic forefinger. For the first time to our knowledge, an SMF sensor is embedded in a soft silicon rubber-made prosthetic forefinger for distributed tactile sensing that eases the fabrication processes and affords judicious way in large-area, high-resolution applications. Our tactile sensor is interrogated with a distributed Rayleigh backscattering-based optical frequency domain reflectometry system. A series of experiments were conducted to verify the proposed tactile sensor. The reported soft silicon rubber-made prosthetic forefinger with built-in fiber optic sensors opens up promising possibilities for the development of sensing abilities and feedback strategies in artificial intelligence.

Department(s)
Electrical and Computer Engineering
Keywords and Phrases
  • Backscattering,
  • Fibers,
  • Frequency domain analysis,
  • Optical fiber fabrication,
  • Optical fibers,
  • Prosthetics,
  • Rubber,
  • Rubber applications,
  • Silicon,
  • Single mode fibers,
  • Fabrication process,
  • Feedback strategies,
  • Optical frequency domain reflectometry,
  • Rayleigh backscattering,
  • Sensing abilities,
  • Silicon rubbers,
  • Single-mode optical fiber,
  • Tactile sensing, Fiber optic sensors,
  • Distributed tactile sensing,
  • Prosthetic forefinger
Document Type
Article - Journal
Document Version
Citation
File Type
text
Language(s)
English
Rights
© 2017 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), All rights reserved.
Publication Date
11-1-2017
Publication Date
01 Nov 2017
Citation Information
Yang Du, Qingbo Yang and Jie Huang. "Soft Prosthetic Forefinger Tactile Sensing via a String of Intact Single Mode Optical Fiber" IEEE Sensors Journal Vol. 17 Iss. 22 (2017) p. 7455 - 7459 ISSN: 1530-437X
Available at: http://works.bepress.com/jie-huang/78/