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Smart textile sensors have been gaining popularity as alternative methods for the continuous monitoring of human motion. Multiple methods of fabrication for these textile sensors have been proposed, but the simpler ones include stitching or embroidering the conductive thread onto an elastic fabric to create a strain sensor. Although multiple studies have demonstrated the efficacy of textile sensors using the stitching technique, there is almost little to no information regarding the fabrication of textile strain sensors using the embroidery method. In this paper, a design guide for the fabrication of an embroidered resistive textile strain sensor is presented. All of the required design steps are explained, as well as the different embroidery design parameters and their optimal values. Finally, three embroidered textile strain sensors were created using these design steps. These sensors are based on the principle of superposition and were fabricated using a stainless-steel conductive thread embroidered onto a polyester–rubber elastic knit structure. The three sensors demonstrated an average gauge factor of 1.88±0.51 over a 26% working range, low hysteresis (8.54±2.66%), and good repeatability after being pre-stretched over a certain number of stretching cycles.

In this study, we demonstrated the feasibility of a wireless strain sensor using resonant frequency modulation through tensile impedance test and wireless sensing test. To achieve a high stretchability, the sensor was fabricated by embedding a copper wire with high conductivity in a silicone rubber with high stretchability, in which the resonant frequency can be modulated according to changes in strain. The characteristics of the sensor and the behavior of wireless sensing were calculated based on equations and simulated using finite element method. As the strain of the sensor increased, the inductance increased, resulting in the modulation of resonant frequency. In experimental measurement, as the strain of the sensor increased from 0% to 110%, its inductance was increased from 192 nH to 220 nH, changed by 14.5%, and the resonant frequency was shifted from 13.56 MHz to 12.72 MHz, decreased by 6.2%. It was demonstrated that using the proposed sensor, strains up to 110% could be detected wirelessly up to a few centimeters.

In this work, a conductive composite film composed of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and multi-layer Ti3C2Tx MXene nanosheets is used to construct a strain sensor on sandpaper Ecoflex substrate. The composite material forms a sophisticated conductive network with exceptional electrical conductivity, resulting in sensors with broad detection ranges and high sensitivities. The findings indicate that the strain sensing range of the Ecoflex/Ti3C2Tx/MWCNT strain sensor, when the mass ratio is set to 5:2, extends to 240%, with a gauge factor (GF) of 933 within the strain interval from 180% to 240%. The strain sensor has demonstrated its robustness by enduring more than 33,000 prolonged stretch-and-release cycles at 20% cyclic tensile strain. Moreover, a fast response time of 200 ms and detection limit of 0.05% are achieved. During application, the sensor effectively enables the detection of diverse physiological signals in the human body. More importantly, its application in a data glove that is coupled with machine learning and uses the Support Vector Machine (SVM) model trained on the collected gesture data results in an impressive recognition accuracy of 93.6%.

Summary A pipeline is often an important structure with very long service life. It is of great significance to monitor the corrosion level of a pipeline to ensure its safety operation. This paper aims to develop a new nondestructive method to detect the pipeline corrosion. It is assumed that the pipeline corrosion will result in a variation of the circumferential strain. The nondestructive detection method is based on a novel fiber Bragg grating (FBG) hoop‐strain sensor, which can accurately measure the circumferential strain of a pipeline. In this paper, the theoretical study and numerical analysis based on finite element method are detailed in our initial work. Then, tests are conducted on three steel pipes to verify the effectiveness and accuracy of this method. The results demonstrate that the FBG hoop‐strain sensor has good performance in the circumferential strain measurement and is sensitive to the variation of the circumferential strain caused by different corrosion level. The FBG hoop‐strain sensor is considered to be a promising device in pipeline corrosion monitoring. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

In this paper we demonstrate strain-dependent photoacoustic (PA) characteristics of free-standing nanocomposite transmitters that are made of carbon nanotubes (CNT) and candle soot nanoparticles (CSNP) with an elastomeric polymer matrix. We analyzed and compared PA output performances of these transmitters which are prepared first on glass substrates and then in a delaminated free-standing form for strain-dependent characterization. This confirms that the nanocomposite transmitters with lower concentration of nanoparticles exhibit more flexible and stretchable property in terms of Young’s modulus in a range of 4.08–10.57 kPa. Then, a dynamic endurance test was performed revealing that both types of transmitters are reliable with pressure amplitude variation as low as 8–15% over 100–800 stretching cycles for a strain level of 5–28% with dynamic endurance in range of 0.28–2.8%. Then, after 2000 cycles, the transmitters showed pressure amplitude variation of 6–29% (dynamic endurance range of 0.21–1.03%) at a fixed strain level of 28%. This suggests that the free-standing nanocomposite transmitters can be used as a strain sensor under a variety of environments providing robustness under repeated stretching cycles.

Functional electrical stimulation (FES) aims to improve the gait pattern in cases of weak foot dorsiflexion (foot lifter weakness) and, therefore, increase the liveability of people suffering from chronic diseases of the central nervous system, e.g., multiple sclerosis. One important component of FES is the detection of the knee angle in order to enable the situational triggering of dorsiflexion in the right gait phase by electrical impulses. This paper presents an alternative approach to sensors for motion capture in the form of weft-knitted strain sensors. The use of textile-based strain sensors instead of conventional strain gauges offers the major advantage of direct integration during the knitting process and therefore a very discreet integration into garments. This in turn contributes to the fact that the FES system can be implemented in the form of functional leggings that are suitable for inconspicuous daily use without disturbing the wearer unnecessarily. Different designs of the weft-knitted strain sensor and the influence on its measurement behavior were investigated. The designs differed in terms of the integration direction of the sensor (wale- or course-wise) and the width of the sensor (number of loops) in a weft-knitted textile structure.

Motion capture of a robot and tactile sensing for a robot require sensors. Strain sensors are used to detect bending deformation of the robot finger and to sense the force from an object. It is important to introduce sensors in effective combination with actuators without affecting the original performance of the robot. We are interested in the improvement of flexible strain sensors integrated into soft microrobot fingers using a pneumatic balloon actuator (PBA). A strain sensor using a microchannel filled with liquid metal was developed for soft PBAs by considering the compatibility of sensors and actuators. Inflatable deformation generated by PBAs, however, was found to affect sensor characteristics. This paper presents structural reinforcement of a liquid metal-based sensor to solve this problem. Parylene C film was deposited into a microchannel to reinforce its structure against the inflatable deformation caused by a PBA. Parylene C deposition into a microchannel suppressed the interference of inflatable deformation. The proposed method enables the effective combination of soft PBAs and a flexible liquid metal strain sensor for use in microrobot fingers.

3D‐printed flexible strain sensors are attracting increasing interest in wearable health monitoring, soft robotics, and broader mechanical sensing because 3D‐printing enables compliant, geometry‐controlled, and increasingly integrated sensor architectures. This systematic review, conducted in accordance with PRISMA 2020, examines 76 peer‐reviewed experimental studies published between February 2014 and March 2026 on 3D‐printed flexible strain sensors. The analysis compares 3D‐printing routes, conductive material systems, transduction mechanisms, application domains, gauge‐factor reporting modes, strain‐range reporting, and durability‐related performance metrics. A key contribution of this review is the traceable separation of linear and maximum gauge factor reporting, together with the distinction between linear operating range and absolute strain capacity. Material extrusion emerged as the dominant manufacturing approach and was most strongly associated with carbon‐based conductive elastomer composites, whereas direct ink writing and vat photopolymerization were more widely implemented for ionic, hydrogel, and ionogel‐based systems. Around 20% of studies reported linear gauge factor, whereas more than 50% reported maximum gauge factor; similarly, absolute strain capacity was extractable in more than 60% of studies, but clearly defined linear operating ranges were reported far less consistently. Overall, 3D printing should be regarded as a design framework for co‐optimizing material, structure, and sensing function. This systematic review analyses 76 studies on 3D‐printed flexible strain sensors and shows how printing route, material system, architecture, and transduction mechanism influence performance. It highlights persistent inconsistency in sensitivity reporting, particularly between linear and maximum gauge factor, and shows that 3D‐printing functions as a design framework for integrating material, geometry, and sensing response.

Zinc‐ion batteries (ZIBs) represent a promising energy‐storage device, which has remarkable merits in terms of cost‐effectiveness, high safety, and environmental sustainability. Transition metal chalcogenides are emerging cathode materials for ZIBs due to their high theoretical capacity and large interlayer spacing. Nevertheless, their application faces critical challenges of sluggish reaction kinetics and huge volume variation. Herein, the anion defect engineering strategy for one‐step in situ anchoring vanadium sulfoselenide on V2CTx template (VSSe/V2CTx) in‐plane heterostructure with built‐in anion vacancy is proposed by robust interfacial C─Se─V bonds to overcome these challenges. The incorporation of the Se atom into VS2 not only changes the metal V atom electronic structure and enhances the intrinsic electrical conductivity of VSSe/V2CTx, but also creates more active sites and accelerates the reaction kinetics as confirmed by theoretical calculations and experimental results. Thus, the VSSe/V2CTx cathode delivers a high capacity of 114.3 mAh g−1 at 5 A g−1 over 15 000 cycles under cryogenic conditions in quasi‐solid state ZIBs (QSSZIBs). Furthermore, the two QSSZIBs successfully integrated with a hydrogel strain sensor enabling reliable human motion and physiological signal detection, highlighting the promise of VSSe/V2CTx cathode for self‐powered wearable healthcare monitoring and management systems. The anion defect engineering strategy for one‐step in situ anchoring vanadium sulfoselenide on V2CTx template (VSSe/V2CTx) in‐plane heterostructure with built‐in anion vacancy is proposed. The incorporation of Se atom into VS2 not only regulates the electronic structure of the central metal V atom and enhances the intrinsic electrical conductivity, but also creates more active sites and accelerates the reaction kinetics of VSSe/V2CT. As a proof of concept, the QSSZIBs successfully integrated with a hydrogel strain sensor enable reliable human motion detection, highlighting the promise of VSSe/V2CTx cathode for wearable healthcare monitoring and management.

An integrated strain sensor system that has a unique response to a specific (set of) human movement(s) has the potential to impact various musculoskeletal health tracking applications akin to the step counter's impact on physical activity tracking. It is determined that an open circuit state of a sensor can be used as such a unique response. With this consideration, a digital strain sensor (DigSS) that exhibits a binary (i.e., ON/OFF) response when a threshold strain level is exceeded is developed. The channel geometry dependence of the corner flow in capillaric strain sensors (CSS) resulting in an electrofluidic switch is used. It is demonstrated that through the coalescence and breakup of a liquid meniscus, DigSS operates for hundreds of cycles with a strain limit of detection of 0.0026. To facilitate integration, a linear optimization‐based computer‐aided design tool for the integrated DigSS (iDigSS) is created. Experimental validation shows that the iDigSS distinguishes a target strain‐field profile from 35 of 36 theoretically distinguishable profiles without requiring signal processing. Human subject trials demonstrate the system's ability to differentiate a specific shoulder movement from five others and to wirelessly record wrist extension counts and durations. The digital capillaric strain sensors (DigSSs) that have a binary ON/OFF response to a tunable strain threshold enable tracking of human movements without complex signal processing algorithms for musculoskeletal health applications. The integrated DigSSs are designed by linear optimization‐based analysis of skin strain profiles and tested on human subjects demonstrating the feasibility of the concept.