Characteristics Evaluation of Stretchable Strain Sensor for Control of Pneumatic Artificial Muscle

Precise measurement of stretching and contration of pneumatic artificial muscles is required to realize applications such as human friendly robotic systems or nursing care support systems because the artificial muscles which are mainly made from elastic materials have non-linear characteristics. To measure the length of the artificial muscles directly, we propose a stretchable strain sensor. The strain sensor has a simple and three-layer structure. The thinness of the strain sensor makes its low modulus of elasticity. In addition, the strain sensor is a light weight. In this paper, the principle of the sensor is described. Some fundamental experiments evaluate the effectiveness of the strain sensor. The strain sensor produces contraction and stretching of the artificial muscle based on a periodic wave input. Therefore, we confirm that the strain sensor has an ability to control the artificial muscle.