The smart electronic skin

A flexible sensing system developed at the Technion will help speed up motor rehabilitation, identify diseases at an early stage and improve robot performance

A flexible, small and cheap sensing system developed at the Technion is presented for the first time in the journal Advanced materials, who chose to present her on the cover of the issue as well. The system may help in the early diagnosis of diseases and speed up the rehabilitation of motor injuries.

The system is a sheet of artificial skin (E-Skin) that functions as a wearable motion sensor that detects with high precision (half a degree) bending and twisting movements. It is a durable and lightweight breathable sheet - features that make it easy to wear over time. It was developed under the leadership of Prof. Hussam Haik, the head of the laboratory for nanomaterials-based devices in the Wolfson Faculty of Chemical Engineering and a member of the Russell Berry Institute for Nanotechnology.

Prof. Haik has been researching and developing wearable devices containing smart sensing systems for many years. Today there are indeed wearable sensors that detect bending movement, but not twisting; Those that only detect torsion are large and unwieldy. "The new sensor has many potential applications," explains Prof. Hayek. "It can be used for the early detection of diseases, for example the detection of breathing changes and motor disorders typical of Parkinson's disease. It can be used to speed up the rehabilitation of accident victims and be incorporated into prosthetic limbs (prostheses) as muscle tissue or skin. In robotics, it can give accurate feedback on movement, and in various industries it will help monitor systems and improve their performance."

The achievement of the Technion researchers is based on the work of Dr. Yehu David Horev, who created the special materials and the sensing system, and the post-doctoral student Dr. Arnav Maity, who solved the mathematics of analyzing the received signal and created an algorithm that maps movements of bending and twisting, including the angle of the movement, its speed and its shape. According to Dr. Horev, "conductive polymers used to manufacture sensors are usually fragile and therefore not suitable for wearable monitoring. To solve this problem, we created a composite material similar to a sheet of cloth, which withstands serious loads and significant tensions without tearing. Beyond that, we were able to produce the fabric as an electronic device that provides information, and its electronic properties are not damaged when stretched."

Prof. Haik adds that the materials developed by the researchers are very cheap, and this means that the entire sensor is not expensive either. "The price is a very important factor if we want to benefit millions of people around the world regardless of their economic situation, whether they live in the developed world or the developing world."

The research was supported by the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ilan Ramon Foundation by providing a doctoral scholarship to Dr. Horev. Along with Prof. Haik, Dr. Khorev and Dr. Arnav Maiti, Yubin Dzeng, Yana Miliutin, Dr. Mohammad Khatib and Dr. Ning Tang, all from the Technion, as well as Miomiao Yuan from the Eighth Hospital attached to Sun Yat University participated in the study -Sen in China, Dr. Ran Sotskwerin from the Department of Water Engineering at Kinneret Academic College and Prof. Weiwei Wu from Shidian University, China.

for the article in the journal Advanced materials