title: A Polypyrrole-based Strain Sensor Dedicated to Measure Bladder Volume in Patients with Urinary Dysfunction.
abstract: This paper describes a new technique to measure urine volume in patients with urinary bladder dysfunction. Polypyrrole - an electronically conducting polymer - is chemically deposited on a highly elastic fabric. This fabric, when placed around a phantom bladder, produced a reproducible change in electrical resistance on stretching. The resistance response to stretching is linear in 20%-40% strain variation. This change in resistance is influenced by chemical fabrication conditions. We also demonstrate the dynamic mechanical testing of the patterned polypyrrole on fabric in order to show the feasibility of passive interrogation of the strain sensor for biomedical sensing applications.
authors.affiliation: Polystim Neurotechnologies Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada. sumitra.rajagopalan@polymtl.ca.
authors.forename: Sumitra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Rajagopalan
authors.affiliation: Polystim Neurotechnologies Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada. mohamad.sawan@polymtl.ca.
authors.forename: Mohamad
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sawan
authors.affiliation: Polystim Neurotechnologies Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada. ebrahim.ghafar-zadeh@polymtl.ca.|Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada. ebrahim.ghafar-zadeh@polymtl.ca.
authors.forename: Ebrahim
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ghafar-Zadeh
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, École Polytechnique de Montréal, Montréal, Quebec, Canada. oumarou.savadogo@polymtl.ca.
authors.forename: Oumarou
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Savadogo
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, McGill University, Montréal, Quebec, Canada. vamsy.chodavarapu@mcgill.ca.
authors.forename: Vamsy P
authors.initials: VP
authors.lastname: Chodavarapu
keywords: Strain sensor; elastic properties; gauge factor; impedance spectroscopy; polypyrrole; urinary bladder volume