Pilot Study: Response of a Piezoelectric Polymer based Sensing system to Indentation

This paper proposes an investigation of the response of a sensing system based on PVDF (Polyvinylidene fluoride) piezoelectric polymer sensors to indentation. A 3-axis Cartesian robot has been used to perform indentation experiments at different speeds and normal loads. Overall, the sensing system reveals a viscoelastic behavior as both the indentation speed and normal load affect sensor response. Preliminary results show that by applying signal processing techniques it is possible to relate sensor response to the indentation speed and applied load. This pilot study paves the way toward extracting time-varying contact force information from sensor outputs.