Bainisha has announced the availability of the printed displacement sensor development kit. The displacement sensor supplied as part of the development kit is a "generic" version intended for feasibility testing and evaluating the basic functionalities of a displacement/volume disturbance sensor concept.
Use cases:
- 3D Joint dynamics
- Swelling & De-swelling
- Area topology
- Deflection of materials
- Trembling & Vibrations
Use it as a MoCap (motion capture) system, connect it to an avatar, create a feedback system for robotics or use the data to optimise your production processes.
The development kit contains:
- 1 x Processing unit (PU)
- 1 x double sided tape to fix the PU to almost any surface
- 1 x charging cable - the charging cable can also be used to transfer data from the PU to your local hub
- 4 x Bainisha Sensor Stickers + 4 alcohol wipes
- 1 x Software - You can live stream data (graph) or get a numerical report
- price € 1,280 + VAT
Displacement sensors are often referred to as "stretch sensors", it is however in essence a sensor producing an output relevant to a volume disturbance (occurring locally or distributed) along or over the entire length of the sensor element.
Unlike most other sensors, which have a very well defined and narrow field of operation (which consequently provides a straightforward canvas to map performance), the Bainisha sensor can be employed for measuring a large variety of physical manifestations. I.e. a characterisation in terms of merely linear displacement would be totally irrelevant. In fact measuring linear displacement is rarely the intention.
The Bainisha displacement sensor produces an extremely sensitive, precise, robust & repeatable signal relevant to the a volume disturbance somewhere along the length of the sensor element.
This disturbance can be caused by:
- the hinging of two elements such as an anatomical joint, the aileron of a drone/aeroplane, a butterfly valve - for example
- volume change such as traumatised body parts, containers under pressure, sails in the wind, during pregnancy, breathing - for example
- a rupture such as thermal crack in a ceramic tile (during testing) or bursting of a rupture safety disc - for example
A paramount feature is therefore that the sensor is integrated in a self-adhesive patch, which is firmly attached to the surface under scrutiny.
To this end we offer two specially developed combinations of substrate/adhesive layer:
- specifically for human skin contact
- specifically for industrial surfaces including fabrics
Depending on the final product design specifications of the client sensor performance can be optimised towards:
- refresh speed - resolution → +1000 Hz
- lifetime → + 106 cycles
- accuracy → 0.15% of the displacement (which in case of tiny movements can be in the range of micrometers)
- tensile modulus → "second skin"-type thickness 38 micron - without adhesive layers, with a lower TM then the human skin
- stretchability → up to 100% of the original length
It is important to note that although there are practically no limits to how the sensor can be applied, it is up to the user to define and calibrate the measurement scope.
For example, in the case of measuring RoM (Range of Motion) of the knee-joint, the system needs to be calibrated by linking the output of the sensor at certain reference points such as measured with a goniometer.
Based on the extended research Bainisha have been doing over the last years, they can also offer engineering assistance with integrating very advanced forms of calibration (such as optical systems).
The company claims to hold extensive IP-rights and have also extended their IP-portfolio to include hybrid approach combining the "hyper-resolutio"n of the displacement sensor with the spatial 3D-capability of (9DoF) IMU's.