Optimization of All-Textile Capacitive Sensor Array for Smart Chair
All-textile capacitive sensor arrays made of a polyurethane foam, fabric and electrically-conducting yarn were fabricated for a ‘smart chair’. Polyurethane foam slab that functioned as a dielectric medium was encased between two pieces of commercially available fabric. The elec...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IEEE
2022-01-01
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| Series: | IEEE Access |
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| Online Access: | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9765467/ |
| _version_ | 1828731062593781760 |
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| author | Helena Gleskova Amayikai A. Ishaku Tadeas Bednar Robert Hudec |
| author_facet | Helena Gleskova Amayikai A. Ishaku Tadeas Bednar Robert Hudec |
| author_sort | Helena Gleskova |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | All-textile capacitive sensor arrays made of a polyurethane foam, fabric and electrically-conducting yarn were fabricated for a ‘smart chair’. Polyurethane foam slab that functioned as a dielectric medium was encased between two pieces of commercially available fabric. The electrically-conducting yarn was used to embroider the capacitor electrodes on both fabric pieces. The completed sensor arrays were investigated under normal compressive load with the targeted pressure range of 2 to 30 kPa for the chair seat and 2 to 8 kPa for the backrest. The sensor capacitance versus normal compressive load exhibited a load/unload hysteresis for all sensor arrays. The hysteresis was modelled with sigmoid function and much narrower hysteresis was observed when all sensors were loaded simultaneously, as opposed to their individual loading, allowing development of a phenomenological model for the former. Among the studied sensor arrays, the array with dimensions of 30 cm <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times 30$ </tex-math></inline-formula> cm made of a 10-mm-thick polyurethane foam with density of ~18.6 kg/m<sup>3</sup> was the most suitable for the following reasons: (a) unloaded sensor capacitance was ~2.7 pF, (b) the sensor location did not affect its response, (c) ~10 kg load applied across individual sensor raised its capacitance by ~12 pF, and (d) 60 kg load applied uniformly across the whole sensor array increased the capacitance by ~5 pF. During the compression of the individual sensors the top fabric affected the sensor’s electro-mechanical response and elastic fabric would be favored for applications with non-uniform pressure distribution. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-12T17:39:25Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-374e9f428cc341aab552b62dd52f9efd |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2169-3536 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-12T17:39:25Z |
| publishDate | 2022-01-01 |
| publisher | IEEE |
| record_format | Article |
| series | IEEE Access |
| spelling | doaj.art-374e9f428cc341aab552b62dd52f9efd2022-12-22T03:22:50ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362022-01-0110486154862110.1109/ACCESS.2022.31712319765467Optimization of All-Textile Capacitive Sensor Array for Smart ChairHelena Gleskova0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7195-9639Amayikai A. Ishaku1https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9097-388XTadeas Bednar2Robert Hudec3Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, U.K.Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, U.K.Department of Theoretical Electrical Engineering and Biomedical Engineering, University of Žilina, Žilina, SlovakiaDepartment of Multimedia and Information-Communication Technology, University of Žilina, Žilina, SlovakiaAll-textile capacitive sensor arrays made of a polyurethane foam, fabric and electrically-conducting yarn were fabricated for a ‘smart chair’. Polyurethane foam slab that functioned as a dielectric medium was encased between two pieces of commercially available fabric. The electrically-conducting yarn was used to embroider the capacitor electrodes on both fabric pieces. The completed sensor arrays were investigated under normal compressive load with the targeted pressure range of 2 to 30 kPa for the chair seat and 2 to 8 kPa for the backrest. The sensor capacitance versus normal compressive load exhibited a load/unload hysteresis for all sensor arrays. The hysteresis was modelled with sigmoid function and much narrower hysteresis was observed when all sensors were loaded simultaneously, as opposed to their individual loading, allowing development of a phenomenological model for the former. Among the studied sensor arrays, the array with dimensions of 30 cm <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times 30$ </tex-math></inline-formula> cm made of a 10-mm-thick polyurethane foam with density of ~18.6 kg/m<sup>3</sup> was the most suitable for the following reasons: (a) unloaded sensor capacitance was ~2.7 pF, (b) the sensor location did not affect its response, (c) ~10 kg load applied across individual sensor raised its capacitance by ~12 pF, and (d) 60 kg load applied uniformly across the whole sensor array increased the capacitance by ~5 pF. During the compression of the individual sensors the top fabric affected the sensor’s electro-mechanical response and elastic fabric would be favored for applications with non-uniform pressure distribution.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9765467/Capacitive sensorspolymer foamssensor arrayssmart devicestextiles |
| spellingShingle | Helena Gleskova Amayikai A. Ishaku Tadeas Bednar Robert Hudec Optimization of All-Textile Capacitive Sensor Array for Smart Chair IEEE Access Capacitive sensors polymer foams sensor arrays smart devices textiles |
| title | Optimization of All-Textile Capacitive Sensor Array for Smart Chair |
| title_full | Optimization of All-Textile Capacitive Sensor Array for Smart Chair |
| title_fullStr | Optimization of All-Textile Capacitive Sensor Array for Smart Chair |
| title_full_unstemmed | Optimization of All-Textile Capacitive Sensor Array for Smart Chair |
| title_short | Optimization of All-Textile Capacitive Sensor Array for Smart Chair |
| title_sort | optimization of all textile capacitive sensor array for smart chair |
| topic | Capacitive sensors polymer foams sensor arrays smart devices textiles |
| url | https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9765467/ |
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