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Soft Sensors, Actuators and Sensing Technology for Medical Applications
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Soft Sensors, Actuators and Sensing Technology for Medical Applications

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Sensors and Robotics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 November 2022) | Viewed by 11422

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Thanh Nho Do

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia
Interests: surgical robotics; control; soft robotics; haptics; capsule endoscopy; artificial muscles; wearable devices; functional materials; soft sensors; soft actuators
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Soft robotics has been rising up as an emerging field in healthcare systems where highly compliant materials and structures are used to build soft, elastic, deformable systems that go beyond traditional rigid approaches. Soft sensor and actuator technologies are opening new possibilities to a wide range of applications in surgical robots, medical devices, haptics, defence, industry, entertainment, and education. Despite these advances, there are still major technical challenges for the design, fabrication, and modelling of soft sensor and actuator technologies that prevent them from being directly used in practice. Novel material development, new design of advanced composites and structures, and facile fabrication methods together with advanced nonlinear modelling, sensing techniques, and precise control algorithms are highly desired to effectively utilise these technologies in real-world applications. The main purpose of this Special Issue is to solicit excellent works from experts in the field to solve the existing challenges of soft sensors, soft actuators, and their related sensing technologies towards the development of “softer and smarter” robotic systems for medical systems. The topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • Soft sensors;
  • Soft actuators with self-sensing capability;
  • Bio-inspired soft robotic structures and devices;
  • Human–robot interactions;
  • Soft sensing technologies in healthcare;
  • Soft haptics;
  • Hybrid rigid–soft interfaces for soft sensors;
  • Mechanical intelligence of soft materials for soft sensors;
  • Nonlinear modelling and hysteresis compensation for soft sensors;
  • Soft wearable and assistive devices;
  • Advanced design and fabrication methods for soft actuators and sensors;
  • System integration for soft sensors and actuators;
  • Assistive systems, rehabilitation robots, and their interaction with the wearer.

Dr. Thanh Nho Do
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sensors is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sensors
  • soft robotics
  • soft actuators
  • surgical robot
  • medicine
  • haptics
  • diagnostics
  • therapeutics
  • wearable devices
  • healthcare

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

30 pages, 3460 KiB  
Article
CochleRob: Parallel-Serial Robot to Position a Magnetic Actuator around a Patient’s Head for Intracochlear Microrobot Navigation
by Housseyne Nadour, Alexis Bozorg Grayeli, Gérard Poisson and Karim Belharet
Sensors 2023, 23(6), 2973; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23062973 - 9 Mar 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2016
Abstract
Our work introduces a new robotic solution named CochleRob, which is used for the administration of super-paramagnetic antiparticles as drug carriers into the human cochlea for the treatment of hearing loss caused by damaged cochlea. This novel robot architecture presents two key contributions. [...] Read more.
Our work introduces a new robotic solution named CochleRob, which is used for the administration of super-paramagnetic antiparticles as drug carriers into the human cochlea for the treatment of hearing loss caused by damaged cochlea. This novel robot architecture presents two key contributions. First, CochleRob has been designed to meet specifications pertaining to ear anatomy, including workspace, degrees of freedom, compactness, rigidity, and accuracy. The first objective was to develop a safer mathod to administer drugs to the cochlea without the need for catheter or CI insertion. Secondly, we aimed at developing and validating the mathemathical models, including forward, inverse, and dynamic models, to support the robot function. Our work provides a promising solution for drug administration into the inner ear. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soft Sensors, Actuators and Sensing Technology for Medical Applications)
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15 pages, 4371 KiB  
Article
Decoupling Transmission and Transduction for Improved Durability of Highly Stretchable, Soft Strain Sensing: Applications in Human Health Monitoring
by Ali Kight, Ileana Pirozzi, Xinyi Liang, Doff B. McElhinney, Amy Kyungwon Han, Seraina A. Dual and Mark Cutkosky
Sensors 2023, 23(4), 1955; https://doi.org/10.3390/s23041955 - 9 Feb 2023
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2998
Abstract
This work presents a modular approach to the development of strain sensors for large deformations. The proposed method separates the extension and signal transduction mechanisms using a soft, elastomeric transmission and a high-sensitivity microelectromechanical system (MEMS) transducer. By separating the transmission and transduction, [...] Read more.
This work presents a modular approach to the development of strain sensors for large deformations. The proposed method separates the extension and signal transduction mechanisms using a soft, elastomeric transmission and a high-sensitivity microelectromechanical system (MEMS) transducer. By separating the transmission and transduction, they can be optimized independently for application-specific mechanical and electrical performance. This work investigates the potential of this approach for human health monitoring as an implantable cardiac strain sensor for measuring global longitudinal strain (GLS). The durability of the sensor was evaluated by conducting cyclic loading tests over one million cycles, and the results showed negligible drift. To account for hysteresis and frequency-dependent effects, a lumped-parameter model was developed to represent the viscoelastic behavior of the sensor. Multiple model orders were considered and compared using validation and test data sets that mimic physiologically relevant dynamics. Results support the choice of a second-order model, which reduces error by 73% compared to a linear calibration. In addition, we evaluated the suitability of this sensor for the proposed application by demonstrating its ability to operate on compliant, curved surfaces. The effects of friction and boundary conditions are also empirically assessed and discussed. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soft Sensors, Actuators and Sensing Technology for Medical Applications)
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Graphical abstract

24 pages, 7066 KiB  
Article
A Wearable Soft Fabric Sleeve for Upper Limb Augmentation
by Trung Thien Hoang, Luke Sy, Mattia Bussu, Mai Thanh Thai, Harrison Low, Phuoc Thien Phan, James Davies, Chi Cong Nguyen, Nigel H. Lovell and Thanh Nho Do
Sensors 2021, 21(22), 7638; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21227638 - 17 Nov 2021
Cited by 17 | Viewed by 4892
Abstract
Soft actuators (SAs) have been used in many compliant robotic structure and wearable devices, due to their safe interaction with the wearers. Despite advances, the capability of current SAs is limited by scalability, high hysteresis, and slow responses. In this paper, a new [...] Read more.
Soft actuators (SAs) have been used in many compliant robotic structure and wearable devices, due to their safe interaction with the wearers. Despite advances, the capability of current SAs is limited by scalability, high hysteresis, and slow responses. In this paper, a new class of soft, scalable, and high-aspect ratio fiber-reinforced hydraulic SAs is introduced. The new SA uses a simple fabrication process of insertion where a hollow elastic rubber tube is directly inserted into a constrained hollow coil, eliminating the need for the manual wrapping of an inextensible fiber around a long elastic structure. To provide high adaptation to the user skin for wearable applications, the new SAs are integrated into flexible fabrics to form a wearable fabric sleeve. To monitor the SA elongation, a soft liquid metal-based fabric piezoresistive sensor is also developed. To capture the nonlinear hysteresis of the SA, a novel asymmetric hysteresis model which only requires five model parameters in its structure is developed and experimentally validated. The new SAs-driven wearable robotic sleeve is scalable, highly flexible, and lightweight. It can also produce a large amount of force of around 23 N per muscle at around 30% elongation, to provide useful assistance to the human upper limbs. Experimental results show that the soft fabric sleeve can augment a user’s performance when working against a load, evidenced by a significant reduction on the muscular effort, as monitored by electromyogram (EMG) signals. The performance of the developed SAs, soft fabric sleeve, soft liquid metal fabric sensor, and nonlinear hysteresis model reveal that they can effectively modulate the level of assistance for the wearer. The new technologies obtained from this work can be potentially implemented in emerging assistive applications, such as rehabilitation, defense, and industry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Soft Sensors, Actuators and Sensing Technology for Medical Applications)
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