This artificial skin is light, transparent, and permeable. It also mimics the interactions of real skin and the brain.
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The Development of Electronic Skin for Robotics
The electronic skin is developed for robotics and can provide robots with a sense of touch or even replace lost senses in humans. Some e-skin can detect chemical substances or magnetic fields. The researchers replaced rigid, bulky substrates that usually host electronics with a thin, light, and flexible membrane that is just a few micrometres thick.
Key Features of the Electronic Skin
The entire membrane is optically transparent and perforated, making the artificial skin permeable to air and moisture, allowing the real skin underneath to breathe. The e-skin features a magneto sensitive functional layer, which acts as a global sensor surface to precisely localise the origin of magnetic signals. A central analysis unit can calculate the signal location based on these changes. This emulates the functioning of real skin and saves energy.
How Electronic Skin Mimics Human Skin
“Such large-area magneto sensitive smart skins are a novelty,” says Pavlo Makushko, PhD student at HZDR and first author of the study. “Conceptually, e-skins now work more like the human body. No matter where I touch real skin, the signal always travels through nerves to the brain, which processes the signal and registers the point of contact. Our e-skins also have a single global sensor surface – just like our skin. And one single central processing unit reconstructs the signal – just like our brain.”
Applications of Electronic Skin Technology
The new e-skins track signal paths, enabling applications that recognize digital patterns, written by a magnetic stylus, touchless interactions in virtual reality, or operating a smartphone in extreme environments, even when diving.
