Flexible sensor for the impact force measurement in flexible interface

When human body is punched by the boxing glove, both of the body surface and the boxing glove deform in a complex shape. The purpose of this study is to develop a flexible sensor that can be used in such interface. Firstly, several mechanical phenomena, which are the cause of error signal of the sensor, are discussed. These are the influences of out-of-plane bending deformation, shear force caused by rubbing force, shear force caused by the Poisson's effect of contact material, and the transverse compressive force caused by the overhanging deformation of flexible material. Then as a sensor that can eliminate the error factors of these, a distribution type impact sensor in which sixteen sensor elements are arranged in a 4x4 matrix is developed. Punching experiments using a boxing glove are carried out by installing the sensor on the load cell, on the concrete wall and on the sandbag. From the experiment, it is found that the impact force can be measured with good accuracy by using the sensor. Despite the sensor has inadequate distribution number of sensor elements, the sensor structure includes mechanical requirements for the flexible impact sensor.