Stretchable Triboelectric–Photonic Smart Skin for Tactile and Gesture Sensing

TLDR

Smart skin is expected to be stretchable and tactile for bionic robots as a medium that interacts with the ambient environment. The authors report a stretchable triboelectric–photonic smart skin (STPS) that enables multidimensional tactile and gesture sensing for a robotic hand. The STPS employs a grating‑structured metal film that provides tunable aggregation‑induced emission across 0–160 % strain and functions as a triboelectric nanogenerator for vertical pressure sensing. The STPS demonstrates tunable aggregation‑induced emission over 0–160 % strain, a maximum vertical‑pressure sensitivity of 34 mV Pa⁻¹ that remains stable under stretching, and, when applied to a robotic hand, provides synchronous, independent multidimensional touch and gesture sensing, marking the first triboelectric–photonic multifunctional terminal with promising applications in human–machine interaction, soft robotics, and AI.

Abstract

Abstract Smart skin is expected to be stretchable and tactile for bionic robots as the medium with the ambient environment. Here, a stretchable triboelectric–photonic smart skin (STPS) is reported that enables multidimensional tactile and gesture sensing for a robotic hand. With a grating‐structured metal film as the bioinspired skin stripe, the STPS exhibits a tunable aggregation‐induced emission in a lateral tensile range of 0–160%. Moreover, the STPS can be used as a triboelectric nanogenerator for vertical pressure sensing with a maximum sensitivity of 34 mV Pa −1 . The pressure sensing characteristics can remain stable in different stretching conditions, which demonstrates a synchronous and independent sensing property for external stimuli with great durability. By integrating on a robotic hand as a conformal covering, the STPS shows multidimensional mechanical sensing abilities for external touch and different gestures with joints bending. This work has first demonstrated a triboelectric–photonic coupled multifunctional sensing terminal, which may have great applications in human–machine interaction, soft robots, and artificial intelligence.