Fig. 1: Human skin-inspired multisensory electronic skins. | npj Flexible Electronics

Fig. 1: Human skin-inspired multisensory electronic skins.

From: Nondestructive identification of softness via bioinspired multisensory electronic skins integrated on a robotic hand

Fig. 1

a Schematics illustrations the structure and function of a biological somatosensory system. Human skin consists of fast-adapting mechanoreceptors [Meissner (MC) and Pacinian corpuscles (PC)] for dynamic stimuli, slow-adapting mechanoreceptors [Merkel disc (MD) and Ruffini endings (RE)] for static stimuli. All mechanoreceptors produce receptor potential through ion channels; b The biomimetic multisensory electronic skin utilizes the synergistic effect of flexible piezoelectric and piezoresistive modes for softness recognition: the piezoelectric layer mimics the fast-adapting mechanoreceptors (i.e., MC and PC) to detect the dynamic touch for preliminary softness classification. The piezoresistive layer emulates the static stimuli response of slow-adapting mechanoreceptors (i.e., MD and RE) to quantitatively measure the softness; c Biomimetic manipulator integrated with multisensory tactile sensors for intelligent sorting.

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