Electronic skin

Researchers have developed an electronic skin that allows humanoid robots to distinguish everyday touch from damaging force. That ability, once reserved for living nervous systems, could reshape how robots interact with the physical world and with humans.

In order to keep from hurting their human coworkers, many robots have sensors that detect contact with people or other objects. Scientists have now devised a high-tech sweater which brings this functionality to robots that don't have it already.

Last year we heard about an "electronic skin" developed at City University of Hong Kong, which delivers tactile sensations to wearers. The university has now gone one better, with an e-skin that both senses and reproduces users' touches.

Facebook recently rebranded as Meta, with an eye toward the development of VR/AR tech. In one of its first projects since the announcement, it's collaborating with Carnegie Mellon University on the development of a touch-sensitive electronic skin.

There are currently a number of groups developing touch-sensitive electronic skin for robots. Scientists at Cornell University are pursuing a simpler approach, however, using shadow-imaging cameras to let robots know when they're being touched.

Although VR tech may allow users to see and hear computer-generated environments, the extent to which people can feel those worlds is still quite limited. That could be about to change, though, thanks to what's being called an "epidermal VR" system.

A number of groups have already developed so-called "electronic skin," which adds electronic functionality to a user's natural skin. A new magnetic take on the technology, however, does away with the need for integrated electronics and power sources.

A human-sized robot has been equipped with 1,260 cells to create what is claimed to be the first autonomous humanoid robot with artificial skin covering its entire body.

​We've already heard about flexible electronic "skins" that could give robots or prosthetic limbs a human-like sense of touch. Now, however, scientists from the University of Texas at Arlington are claiming to have developed a skin that's even more touch-sensitive than our own.

Various research institutes have already developed skin-applied electronics, that are simply adhered to the user's body. Researchers at the University of Minnesota, however, have taken a different approach. They've developed a method of 3D-printing custom electronics directly onto the skin.

Researchers from the University of Colorado Boulder have developed an electronic skin embedded with a host of sensors that can be bent and twisted to custom fit its owner. If it gets damaged, the e-skin can be healed, and it can be completely recycled at the end of its useful life.​​

Through a special organ on their snouts, pit vipers can sense the body heat of their prey. Scientists have developed an artificial skin that uses a similar mechanism​ and could allow prosthetic limbs to detect changes in temperature, or make a smart bandage that can warn of infection.