(1) StretchSense - From coupling electric charge to soft rubbery materials, the Lab’s work led us to wearable stretchy sensors and soft energy harvesters. These can sense and collect power from human movement.

(2) Soft electronics for robots - A challenge in soft robotics is incorporating compatible driving electronics into soft structures. Conventional electronics are rigid and dense. To make entirely soft and autonomous robots, soft low density electronics are needed. To meet this challenge, the Biomimetics Lab developed the dielectric elastomer switch (DES) – a flexible electrode having strain-dependent conductivity. The DES controls charge to soft dielectric elastomer actuators, also known as artificial muscles. This means coupled switches and artificial muscles make up smart actuator networks that can be used to rhythmically drive biomimetic robots.

(3) Soft wearable game controller - Conventional human-computer interfaces are very restrictive, because they are designed to be operated on a desktop, by a person sitting in a chair. As a consequence, users are desk-bound, instead of enjoying an immersive interaction. Researchers have addressed these limitations with a wearable game controller for the popular 3D computer game ‘Doom’. The glove-shaped device captures finger movements with soft stretch sensors to change weapons, and uses an accelerometer for left and right, backward and forward movement. Players can now interact with Doom through body motion, which adds an exciting physical component to the game experience.

(4) Programmable rubber keyboard - This novel sensing method uses multiple sensing frequencies to target different regions of the same dielectric elastomer. It simultaneously detects position and pressure using only a single pair of connections. The dielectric elastomer is modelled as an RC transmission line and its internal voltage and current distribution are used to determine localised capacitance changes resulting from contact and pressure. No modifications of the sensing hardware or the dielectric elastomer are required to increase the number of locations. This sensing method is demonstrated on a multi-touch musical keyboard made from a single low cost carbon-based dielectric elastomer with four distinct musical tones mapped along a length of 0.1 m.