The role of length shift in assessing force and resistivity for optimized e-textile sensors
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Accepted Version
Date
2025-07-18
Authors
Gola, Gianmarco
Menolotto, Matteo
Demarchi, Danilo
O'Flynn, Brendan
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Published Version
Abstract
Wearable sensors are becoming increasingly ubiquitous, revolutionizing the way we extract meaningful data from human subjects and compliant objects, such as soft and collaborative robots. E-textiles have emerged as a cost-effective solution that offers an optimal balance between sensitivity and mechanical compliance. However, current evaluations of e-textiles designed to transduce force into electrical signals often overlook the impact of natural length variations caused by mechanical stretching. This factor can compromise long-term accuracy, underscoring the need for a more comprehensive characterization approach. This work introduces and validates a novel assessment protocol that simultaneously tracks resistivity, force, and length variations in a conductive thread during different electro mechanical tests. The measurement system incorporates Wheatstone bridges as a front end to optimize the dynamic range of resistive readings and load cell signals, while employing an image processing approach to ensure precise length tracking. The results indicate a progressive increase in length after multiple stretch-recovery cycles, demonstrating how resistance and resting length evolve over repeated mechanical interactions. This approach facilitates the development of textile-based sensors and resistivity models that account for length variations during mechanical work, improving accuracy, and expanding the range of potential applications.
Description
Keywords
Textile-based sensor , Conductive fabric , E-textile , Soft sensor
Citation
Gola, G., Menolotto, M., Demarchi, D. and O’Flynn, B. (2025) ‘The role of length shift in assessing force and resistivity for optimized e-textile sensors’, 2025 IEEE International Instrumentation and Measurement Technology Conference (I2MTC), Chemnitz, Germany, 19-22 May 2025, pp. 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1109/I2MTC62753.2025.11079098
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