This assignment is part of research toward the design and use of soft robotics in the context of using diagnostic tests for internal procedures such as anoscopy and endoscopy. Within this research, the characterisation of each of the elements has to be done, so that the final robot can be designed and built with a practically usable output to be read by medical professionals. This is important as current methodology uses rigid bodies, which have a higher likelihood of inducing internal damage on the patient, as these do not have yet have pressure sensing capabilities and are, as mentioned earlier, rigid compared to the softer nature of silicon based robotics.
The purpose of this specific bachelor assignment is to provide a starting point in characterisation by conducting research on the effects of the type and location of the contact points on the sensors. This is important because, by knowing the effects of these variables, they can be taken into account when doing other types of measurements on the silicon/gel structure so that it can be seen which part of the changes can be attributed to the way the measurement equipment interacts with the sensor and what part is due to design changes.