Soft Mechanical Inductive Sensors: Principles, Design, and Applications

Soft mechanical inductive (SMI) sensors are emerging as a promising solution for advanced robotics, healthcare, and wearable devices, offering high precision, adaptability, and environmental robustness. These sensors leverage coil-based designs to achieve resilience against temperature variations, humidity, and mechanical wear, making them suitable for long-term operation in challenging environments. Existing reviews tend to focus narrowly on specific applications of coil-based inductive sensors, such as soft-robotic tactile sensing or biomedical devices, without systematically comparing design methodologies, fabrication techniques, or broader use cases, thereby lacking a unified perspective on the field. This review addresses this gap by analyzing recent developments in SMI sensors from theoretical concepts and practical design to their use cases. The review focuses on the working principles, design strategies, fabrication techniques, electronic interfaces, and, finally, the applications of coil-based SMI sensors. Key applications in soft robotics, prosthetics, and haptic devices are examined, highlighting the transformative potential of these sensors across diverse domains. Finally, the review discusses critical challenges, including sensitivity optimization, durability, and environmental interference, and outlines future directions to further advance this promising technology.