Large‐Area Hand‐Covering Elastomeric Electronic Skin Sensor with Distributed Multifunctional Sensing Capability

Abstract

Replicating the haptic perception capability of the human hand is an indispensable goal for intelligent robots and human–machine interactions. Multifunctional electronic skin (e‐skin) sensors can be an ideal candidate to bridge the gaps among humans, robots, and the environment. Mutual interference of multistimuli and unconformable spatial distribution impedes the application of e‐skin sensors. Hence, a large‐area, hand‐covering elastomeric e‐skin sensor is proposed to imitate the human hand for multifunctional detection. Five multifunctional sensing units are designed on the fingertips, and 15 pressure‐sensing units are distributed on the finger phalanxes and palm to cover the main sensory area of the hand. A multilayer architecture is designed to improve the sensing performances and reduce the coupling interference during multifunctional detection. The e‐skin sensor exhibits similarity to the human hand not only in shape but also in functionality, possessing pressure sensitivity of 0.025 V kPa−1 in 0.1–120 kPa and temperature sensitivity of 0.38% °C−1 in 20–70 °C. The performance of the e‐skin sensor can meet the requirements of daily manipulations. Experimental studies on grasping objects with different grasping modes and object properties demonstrate the potential applications of the e‐skin sensor for grasping haptic perception and human–robot interactions.