Structural Electronic Skin for Conformal Tactile Sensing (Adv. Sci. 33/2023)
Sen Li, Jiantao Huang, Meilan Wang, Deng Ka, Chenhui Guo, Bin Li, Yu Cheng, Hongyan Sun, Hong Ye, Tingrui Pan, Yu Chang
Abstract
Structural Electronic Skin In article number 2304106, Sen Li, Tingrui Pan, Yu Chang, and co-workers report a structural electronic skin (SES) engineered for conformal tactile sensing by utilizing the 3D printing technology to prepare the 3D electrode array in the structural component following its surface curvature, and covering it with a molded functional shell to form the pressure sensitive iontronic interface, enabling exceptionally sensitive pressure detection and precise tactile mapping on intricate non-developable surfaces. The structural electronic skin is seamlessly integrated into dexterous hands, enabling the sensor units to provide complete conformal coverage on complex non-developable surfaces, demonstrating its application in the fields of medical robotics and smart prosthetics.