A Novel Floor Sensor Network Technology Based on Dielectric Electro-Active Polymers

This study describes a novel floor sensor network being developed to provide a competitive and universal pressure mapping technology for a wide range of medical, research and security applications. The presented sensor network consists of 16 sensor elements distributed in a 4x4 sensor matrix. The sensor elements are made of a special dielectric electro-active polymer film being capable of capacitive sensing of the surface pressure. Each sensor unit is 200x160 mm resulting in an overall sensor matrix size of 800x740 mm. A high precision and high speed sensor interface was realized to provide a differential capacitance measurement method fulfilling the specific measuring requirements of the sensor matrix. Based on the measurement results, the developed sensor network is capable of measuring the distributed weight on their surface with an accuracy of 5 kg, however, this initial measuring accuracy can be significantly increased by improving the manufacturing technology of the sensor elements.