Soft artificial electroreceptors for noncontact spatial perception

Abstract

Soft artificial electroreceptors inspired by electroreception mechanism of rays can locate objects in a noncontact manner.

Recent Advances in Triboelectric Nanogenerators: From Technological Progress to Commercial Applications

“…It is expected that TENGs are readily capable to meet the needs. Because touches on TENGs can be directly converted into electrical signals based on electrostatic induction, electrical energy generated by TENGs have been utilized for sensing physical interaction. ,, This ensures TENGs that can detect touches without additional power sources. , This is called self-powered touch sensing. Simple structure (basically two layers of dielectric and conducting layers) of TENGs allows a wide range of material selection, and thus ensures TENGs to be fabricated with lightweight and flexible properties. ,, The flexibility also contributes TENGs to be mounted on deformable substrates such as a human skin. ,, The promising characteristics have allowed TENGs to be highlighted as self-powered touch sensors as well as energy harvesters.…”

“…With an increasing demand for information exchange as well as reciprocal interactions between the virtual and real world, TENG-based human-machine interfaces (HMIs) in various forms have been vastly developed for diversified applications. ,,− A growing interest has been observed in wearable HMIs with noncontact attributes in recent years, especially during the current pandemic . Accordingly, there are a few noncontact HMIs that have been reported for proximity sensing of hand/finger on the basis of TENGs. ,,− , Figure (a)-(i) shows a triboelectric touch-free screen sensor (TSS) to recognize various gestures in the vicinity of it in a noncontact working mode .…”

“…Since the milestone research on triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) was reported in 2012, the research field of triboelectric nanogenerators has been spotlighted as a promising energy harvesting technology. With the advantages of TENGs including high power generation, diverse material selection, simple structure, and cost-efficient fabrication processes, the research field of TENGs has been widely extended by its applications such as self-powered touch sensors, − power sources for robotics, − medical rehabilitation, − and human-machine interaction. ,, The numbers of articles and countries researching TENGs have dramatically increased during the last ten years (Figure a). Especially, research on triboelectric materials has been tremendous for maximizing power generation by enhancing contact electrification (Figure b). ,, Furthermore, there has been a notable development on flexible, ,, stretchable, ,, and transparent ,, material based-TENGs to meet the requirement of human-machine interfaces.…”

Ionic skin: from imitating natural skin to beyond

“…64 Achieving noncontact perception requires that a surrounding object can remotely stimulate the sensing device and cause changes in the detectable signal. At present, the methods of noncontact perception mainly include humidity sensing, 65,66 triboelectric sensing, [67][68][69] infrared radiation sensing, 70 magnetic sensing 71 and capacitive sensing. 72,73 The sensing modes suitable for ionic skin are mainly based on triboelectric sensors, humidity and capacitive sensors.…”

Human Pulse Detection by a Soft Tactile Actuator

“…Soft robots have the advantages of high structural flexibility [3], good environmental adaptability [4], strong human-computer interaction [5], and high safety [6]. With the developments in soft actuation technology and soft sensing technology, soft robots are expanding into humancomputer interaction, health care, field exploration, and other fields [7,8]. Moreover, with the increasing maturity of the soft material processing technology, various soft robots have been fabricated, such as the soft crawl robot [9], soft underwater robot [10], and soft flying robot [11].…”