Bioinspired design of tactile sensors based on Flemion

In this work, we studied experimentally the sensing behavior of ionic membrane-based tactile sensors (Nafion and Flemion). We found from the experimental results that Flemion-based sensor exhibits clearer sensing signals than Nafion-based sensor and signals from Flemion-based sensor are robust under repeated loading. We also found that dome-shaped Flemion sensor can detect three-dimensional forces. We attempted to design an arrayed Flemion sensor system by bioinspiration from the tactile sensor cells on the skin of a cucumber tendril where numbers of the dome-shaped Flemion sensor units are arrayed periodically.