Thin-film flexible sensor for omnidirectional strain measurements

Conventional strain sensors are both precise and inexpensive, but can only effectively measure strain in one specific direction. In this paper, we report an omnidirectional flexible strain sensor that operates regardless of the orientation of its installation with respect to the direction of the applied strain. The performance of the developed device was compared to that of conventional foil strain gauges and it was demonstrated that, in contrast to the conventional devices, the omnidirectional strain sensor developed here shows almost uniform sensitivity at various installation angles.