Abstract
Electronic skin (eSkin) with various types of sensors over large conformable substrates has received considerable interest in robotics. The continuous operation of large number of sensors and the readout electronics make it challenging to meet the energy requirements of eSkin. In this article, we present the first energy generating eSkin with intrinsic tactile sensing without any touch sensor. The eSkin comprises a distributed array of miniaturized solar cells and infrared light emitting diodes (IRLEDs) on soft elastomeric substrate. By innovatively reading the variations in the energy output of the solar cells and IRLEDs, the eSkin could sense multiple parameters (proximity, object location, edge detection, etc.). As a proof of concept, the eSkin has been attached to a 3-D-printed hand. With an energy surplus of 383.6 mW from the palm area alone, the eSkin could generate more than 100 W if present over the whole body (area ~1.5 m <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> ). Further, with an industrial robot arm, the presented eSkin is shown to enable safe human-robot interaction. The novel paradigm presented in this article for the development of a flexible eSkin extends the application of solar cell from energy generation alone to simultaneously acting as touch sensors.
Highlights
Electronic skin or “eSkin” has recently emerged as a novel platform for advances in robotics, prosthesis, health diagnostics, therapeutics, and monitoring [1]
The operating principle of solar cells was harnessed for touch sensing, and, the solar cells were used as energy harvesters and touch sensors at the same time
A large area flexible and conformable eSkin was developed by distributing miniaturized solar cells in a matrix
Summary
Electronic skin or “eSkin” has recently emerged as a novel platform for advances in robotics, prosthesis, health diagnostics, therapeutics, and monitoring [1]. Various attempts to address the energy issue have so far focused on either minimizing the use power through low-power electronics [18], [19] and event-driven approaches for tactile data readout from selected locations [20]–[24] or by using various types of energy harvesters [11], [15], [25]–[27] To this end, we recently demonstrated an energy autonomous eSkin with graphene-based transparent touch sensing layer integrated on solar cells [28]. The touch sensitive layer in this work required ultra-low power (∼20 nW/cm2) for operation, and in a following work, we showed that the excess energy generated by solar cells could be stored in flexible supercapacitors underneath to allow eSkin to function when there is no light [29], [30]. The demonstrated solar eSkin will potentially open new pathways for power management in robotics
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