Integrated Real-Time Pneumatic Monitoring System With Triboelectric Linear Displacement Sensor

With the continuous development of mechanical automation field, its monitoring technology is also changing with each passing day. Pneumatic technology is one of the important ways to realize mechanical automation. Here, the integrated real-time pneumatic monitoring system (PMS) is proposed, which is composed of a triboelectric linear displacement sensor (TLDS) and a cylinder. The resolution of TLDS is 100 μm, which is composed of a slider and a stator. According to theory of freestanding triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), the working principle of TLDS is explained. Therefore, the proposed PMS can realize displacement and speed monitoring of the full stroke of the cylinder. The experimental results show that the PMS enabled accurate monitoring of cylinder displacement and speed under different pressure conditions, and the mean error rate of PMS is less than 2%. In addition, to fulfill the actual demands of the pneumatic industry, the real-time hardware processing module is designed to realize real-time monitoring. Finally, the PMS still has stable monitoring performance after 6 h (about 4 km) continuous operation. This work successfully explored the application of triboelectric sensors in pneumatic system and reached the requirements of industrial applications.