This article presents a novel stretchable ultrasonic transducer array with high-pressure resistance and sensitivity for the integration of robotic arm to detect internal characteristics under complex-shaped surfaces. The proposed transducer… Click to show full abstract
This article presents a novel stretchable ultrasonic transducer array with high-pressure resistance and sensitivity for the integration of robotic arm to detect internal characteristics under complex-shaped surfaces. The proposed transducer array has a $3\times $ 3 array of 1–3 composites that use bidirectional stretchable electrodes to enhance its stretchability and a pressure block to improve resistant force. Exploiting the Ag nanoflakes as the material of electrodes improves the interfacial bonding with polymer substrate. A low-cost fabrication method is developed to fabricate the ultrasonic transducer array. Experimental tests showed that the fabricated ultrasonic transducer array has good electromechanical coupling ( $k_{\mathrm {eff}}$ = 0.56), wide bandwidth (31%), negligible crosstalk (−81 dB), and over 40% stretchability. Nine elements are used to cross-locate the structure characteristics within an object based on the flight of time difference. The experimental results demonstrated that the cross-positioning method has over 90% accuracy for object internal characteristics detection. Therefore, our developed stretchable ultrasonic transducer array would have great potential to significantly advance object identification, sorting, and assembly applications in automated robotics.
               
Click one of the above tabs to view related content.