Research Projects

The ability of human skin to detect physical changes over non-flat surfaces has inspired the development of flexible sensing systems. These systems can transduce signals to measure various physical parameters, such as temperature, strain, heat distribution, and air flow. In aerospace technologies, accurate surface measurements are crucial for maintaining optimal flying performance and predicting aerodynamic characteristics, but the surrounding factors of temperature and pressure make this challenging. For example, commercial aircraft operate in a broad range of temperatures, from -55℃ to 50℃ at ground level and as low as -80℃ at 12,000 m altitude. Accurate sensing of temperature over a large area is therefore quite challenging because of the inevitable heat losses that occur between the sensing film and surroundings. Similarly, strain sensors experiencing cross-sensitivities from temperature fluctuations is a common concern. This limit sensing into a small controllable area. Temperature sensors that are capped with air and strain sensors with near-zero temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) that are printed on flexible substrates have the potential to overcome the challenges of measuring physical parameters over large areas while avoiding being affected by ambient conditions. To overcome these challenges, a proposal has been made to develop a flexible multifunctional sensing skin that can accurately monitor temperature and strain on the surface, even under changing ambient conditions. While developing the sensing skin, efforts will also be made to minimize delamination effects between the skin and aircraft surface and to minimize cross-sensitivities between different sensors. The proposed research is interdisciplinary, combining advanced research fields from aerospace to manufacturing to nanotechnology. The successful implementation of this project will have a significant impact across disciplines and can be extended to other applications, such as wearable electronics, deformable displays, and soft robotics. The proposed project is unique in that it aims to integrate individual sensors into a system that can monitor physical parameters over curved surfaces through distributed sensing using flexible skin. The project takes a multidisciplinary approach and provides incentives for future investigations attempting to implement sensors at the system level. This is an area of significant scientific interest to the scientific community in India and beyond.