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Self-powered triboelectric wireless sensor for robotic arm control via enhanced electromagnetic induction

Nature Sensors (2026)Cite this article

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Abstract

The intuitive control of robotic arms requires sensors that can transduce human motion into electrical signals efficiently, reliably and without cumbersome power sources. Conventional wearable wireless sensors depend on batteries and electronics, limiting lifetime and increasing system complexity. Here we report a fully self-powered wireless arm interface that harnesses a sliding triboelectric nanogenerator with strongly coupled magnetic resonances to convert arm motion directly into electrical energy and wireless signals. With a compact 20 × 33 mm² slider, the device generates 608 μJ per motion cycle and achieves 4.5-fold enhancement over conventional sliding triboelectric nanogenerators. After pulse shaping by mechanical switches, it is sufficient to drive both sensing and wireless communication solely from mechanical energy. This approach enables energy management-free, battery-free and real-time control of robotic arms, offering a pathway towards sustainable and compact human–machine interfaces in industrial applications.

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Fig. 1: Overall illustration of the SWAi.
Fig. 2: Working mechanism of the DTE-S-TENG.
Fig. 3: Working mechanism of the SAMS.
Fig. 4: Performance of the wireless transmission system under specific parameters.
Fig. 5: Demonstration of the SWAi.

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Data availability

The data and material resources supporting the findings of this study are available within the article and its Supplementary Information. Source data are provided with this paper.

Code availability

The codes used in robotic arm control are available via GitHub at https://github.com/xiaoandap/RoboticArmController.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Project from Minister of Science and Technology (grant no. 2021YFA1201602), the Natural Science Foundation of Chongqing (grant no. CSTB2023NSCQ-MSX0945) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 51902035).

Author information

Author notes

  1. These authors contributed equally: Shanshan An, Sizhao Liu.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Physics, State Key Laboratory of Power Transmission Equipment and System Security and New Technology, Chongqing University, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China

    Shanshan An, Sizhao Liu, Xiang Zhou, Gui Li, Jian Wang, Tao Zhou, Aiqi Yang, Yuhang Zhou & Xianjie Pu

  2. Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, People’s Republic of China

    Zhong Lin Wang

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Contributions

S.A., S.L. and X.P. conceived of the idea and designed the SWAi. S.A. fabricated the SAMS. S.A., S.L. and X.P. designed and performed the experiments. X.Z., G.L., J.W., T.Z., A.Y. and Y.Z. assisted in the experiments and software development. S.A., S.L. and X.P. analysed the data and prepared the draft. X.P. and Z.L.W. supervised the project and reviewed the paper. All authors discussed the results and commented on the paper.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Xianjie Pu or Zhong Lin Wang.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

Peer review

Peer review information

Nature Sensors thanks the anonymous reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Extended data

Extended Data Fig. 1 Photographs of SAMS.

a, External appearance of SAMS. b, Internal structural configuration of SAMS.

Extended Data Fig. 2 Photographs of switch with different states.

a, Pre-connection. b, Connected. c, Disconnected.

Extended Data Fig. 3 Wireless signals captured at high sampling rates.

DTE-S-TENG sliding to VIII (a), X (b), and XII (c).

Source data

Extended Data Fig. 4 Photographs of controlling the robotic arm to move counterclockwise.

a–d, Synchronized transition of the robotic arm (bottom) from flexed to extended posture following the human arm (top).

Supplementary information

Supplementary Information (download PDF )

Supplementary Figs. 1–19, Tables 1–3, Note 1 and Video 1.

Reporting Summary (download PDF )

Supplementary Video 1 (download MP4 )

Real-time, self-powered wireless control of a robotic arm via SWAi.

Source data

Source Data Fig. 1 (download XLSX )

Output charge of DTE-S-TENG and wireless signal of SAMS.

Source Data Fig. 2 (download XLSX )

Comparison of three TENGs.

Source Data Fig. 3 (download XLSX )

Working mechanism of the SAMS.

Source Data Fig. 4 (download XLSX )

Performance of the wireless transmission system under specific parameters.

Source Data Extended Data Fig. 3 (download XLSX )

Wireless signals captured at high sampling rates.

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An, S., Liu, S., Zhou, X. et al. Self-powered triboelectric wireless sensor for robotic arm control via enhanced electromagnetic induction. Nat. Sens. (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44460-026-00039-x

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