Resistive Fibre-Meshed Transducers

The paper demonstrates the preliminary research carried out on fibre meshed transducers for wearable computing applications, their constructions using electroconductive fibres via the route of modern electronic flatbed knitting technology. The paper reports the construction of resistive strain and displacement transducers using electroconductive polymeric fibres (resistivity of 10 cm) and metallic fibres (resistivity of 10 cm) and the modelling of electrical equivalent circuits of the fibre meshed transducers. The models are discussed in order to demonstrate the variation of electrical parameters under static and dynamic planar loads. Two methods of transducer construction are also discussed; in the first method the electroconductive fibres are stretched out in the base fibre meshed structure, and in the second method the electroconductive fibres are intermeshed as an integral section of the base fibre meshed structure.