A flexible temperature sensing finger using optical fiber grating for soft robot application

Bionic perception, especially temperature-aware, is one of the important issues in soft robots research. This paper presents a method to implant temperature sensor network into soft robot finger by using optical fiber gratings. For avoiding strain disturbance, a dedicated metal tube is designed to package and protect the optical fiber gratings. For implanting the sensors firmly, a solution using two kinds of adhesive is proposed. The prototype is calibrated in high precision temperature bath and then measured under different temperatures and different bending conditions, respectively. The experimental results are compared with electronic temperature sensor (PT100 thermal resistance), which verifies the accuracy and repeatability of the design. With the dedicated coating and adhesive solution, the proposed temperature sensor network is suitable for implanting into soft robots for the temperature-aware ability.