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Non-equilibrium-Growing Aesthetic Ionic Skin for Fingertip-Like Strain-Undisturbed Tactile Sensation and Texture
Haiyan Qiao1, Shengtong Sun1, Peiyi Wu1
1State Key Laboratory for Modification of Chemical Fibers and Polymer Materials, College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering & Center for Advanced Low-dimension Materials, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, P. R. China.
Abstract:
Humans use periodically ridged fingertips to precisely perceive the characteristics of objects via ion-based fast- and slow-adaptive mechanotransduction. However, designing artificial ionic skins with fingertip-like tactile capabilities remains challenging because of the contradiction between structural compliance and pressure sensing accuracy (e.g., anti-interference from stretch and texture recognition). Inspired by the formation and modulus-contrast hierarchical structure of fingertips, an aesthetic ionic skin grown from a non-equilibrium Liesegang patterning process is introduced. This ionic skin with periodic stiff ridges embedded in a soft hydrogel matrix enables strain-undisturbed triboelectric dynamic pressure sensing as well as vibrotactile texture recognition. By coupling with another piezoresistive ionogel, an artificial tactile sensory system is further fabricated as a soft robotic skin to mimic the simultaneous fast- and slow-adaptive multimodal sensations of fingers in grasping actions. This approach may inspire the future design of high-performance ionic tactile sensors for intelligent applications in soft robotics and prosthetics.
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