sensesskin

Sensesskin is a term used to describe a flexible, stretchable electronic skin designed to endow surfaces and devices with tactile sensing capabilities. By embedding sensor arrays in a compliant substrate, sensesskin can measure pressure, temperature, slip, and other stimuli, enabling more natural interaction with the environment and with users.

Technologies employed include elastomeric polymers embedded with conductive nanomaterials, such as silver nanowires or graphene, and thin, flexible circuitry. Sensing modalities may be piezoresistive, capacitive, or optical, and systems are often organized into high-density, conformal skins. Power is supplied by ultra-thin batteries or energy harvesting, while data processing and wireless communication are performed by flexible electronics.

Applications span robotic grippers and prosthetic limbs, where sensesskin provides tactile feedback to control systems and wearers; medical devices for monitoring skin interfaces; and human–machine interfaces and virtual reality that rely on realistic haptic cues.

Key challenges include maintaining durability under repeated bending and stretching, ensuring biocompatibility for skin contact, calibrating sensors across curved surfaces, and scaling manufacturing processes for large-area production. Data management and latency also matter for real-time control.

In practice, sensesskin remains largely in research and early prototypes, with limited commercial deployments and ongoing work to improve reliability and cost.

See also electronic skin, tactile sensor, soft robotics, and haptic feedback.