Water-Modulated Biomimetic Hyper- Attribute-Gel Electronic Skin for Robotics and Skin-Attachable Wearables

Electronic skin (e-skin), mimicking the physical-chemical and sensory properties of human skin, is promising to be applied as robotic skins and skin-attachable wearables with multisensory functionalities. To date, most e-skins are dedicated to sensory function development to mimic human skins in one or several aspects, yet advanced e-skin covering all the hyper-attributes (including both the sensory and physical-chemical properties) of human skins is seldom reported. Herein, a water-modulated biomimetic hyper-attribute-gel (Hygel) e-skin with reversible gel-solid transition is proposed, which exhibits all the desired skin-like physical-chemical properties (stretchability, self-healing, biocompatibility, biodegradability, weak acidity, antibacterial activ-ities, flame retardance, and temperature adaptivity), sensory properties (pressure, temperature, humidity, strain, and contact), function reconfigurability, and evolvability. Then the Hygel e-skin is applied as an on-robot e-skin and skin-attached wearable to demonstrate its highly skin-like attributes in capturing multiple sensory information, reconfiguring desired functions, and excellent skin compatibility for real-time gesture recognition via deep learning. This Hygel e-skin may find more applications in advanced robotics and even skin-replaceable artificial skin.

Automated summary

This article introduces an electronic skin (e-skin) that mimics the physical-chemical and sensory properties of human skin, showing promise for use in robotic skins and skin-attachable wearables with multisensory functionalities. Most e-skins developed so far focus on simulating only the sensory functions of human skin, while this advanced e-skin, called Hygel e-skin, covers both sensory and physical-chemical properties. The Hygel e-skin demonstrates desirable characteristics such as stretchability, self-healing, biocompatibility, biodegradability, weak acidity, antibacterial activities, flame retardance, temperature adaptivity, function reconfigurability, and evolvability. It is applied as an on-robot e-skin and skin-attached wearable, exhibiting highly skin-like attributes in capturing multiple sensory information and enabling real-time gesture recognition through deep learning. This Hygel e-skin holds potential for applications in advanced robotics and as a skin-replaceable artificial skin.