Embedded 3D Printing: A Cost-effective Development Platform for Tactile Sensors

Soft tactile sensor design is commonly implemented with conductive, stretchable materials that are either soft themselves or embedded in an elastomeric matrix. It is well documented that embedded 3D printing (e-3D) overcomes the limitations of these processes, such as delicate hard-soft interfaces, poor shape fidelity, intricate manufacturing processes, and extensive multi-step casting. This paper proposes a precise and accessible e-3D setup by combining a cost-effective fused deposition modeling (FDM) printer with a high-precision extruder suitable for soft materials and liquids. We designed and fabricated four sensor patterns that were evaluated in stretch and normal force experiments. The results indicate, that the three sensors under normal force were able to detect qualitative contact changes, while the one exposed to stretch performed similar to previous work in the literature. These preliminary results prove the feasibility of the proposed setup, which will be used as an optimization and evaluation platform for future soft tactile sensor development.