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Recent Development of Flexible Tactile Sensors and Their Applications
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Recent Development of Flexible Tactile Sensors and Their Applications

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Sensors and Robotics".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 December 2025 | Viewed by 4433

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Min Li

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Instrument Science and Technology, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China
Interests: flexible sensors

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Flexible tactile sensors have attracted wide research interest in recent years owing to the wide range of application potential in the fields of human clinical diagnosis, health assessment, health monitoring, virtual electronics, flexible touch screens, flexible electronic skin, and industrial robots. However, challenges still exist in achieving light weight, good flexibility, excellent stretchability, biocompatibility, high sensitivity and fast response speed.

This Special Issue focuses on the latest innovations, applications, and challenges in flexible tactile sensors technologies. We invite you to submit short communications, full research articles, and timely reviews focusing on advanced tactile sensors technologies.

Dr. Min Li
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

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Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • flexible tactile sensors
  • novel sensing materials
  • smart structure design
  • new sensing principles
  • high performance
  • applications

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Published Papers (4 papers)

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Research

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21 pages, 2667 KiB  
Article
Synthetic Tactile Sensor for Macroscopic Roughness Estimation Based on Spatial-Coding Contact Processing
by Muhammad Irwan Yanwari and Shogo Okamoto
Sensors 2025, 25(8), 2598; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25082598 - 20 Apr 2025
Viewed by 283
Abstract
Traditional tactile sensors primarily measure macroscopic surface features but do not directly estimate how humans perceive such surface roughness. Sensors that mimic human tactile processing could bridge this gap. This study proposes a method for predicting macroscopic roughness perception based on a sensing [...] Read more.
Traditional tactile sensors primarily measure macroscopic surface features but do not directly estimate how humans perceive such surface roughness. Sensors that mimic human tactile processing could bridge this gap. This study proposes a method for predicting macroscopic roughness perception based on a sensing principle that closely resembles human tactile information processing. Humans are believed to assess macroscopic roughness based on the spatial distribution of subcutaneous deformation and resultant neural activities when touching a textured surface. To replicate this spatial-coding mechanism, we captured distributed contact information using a camera through a flexible, transparent material with fingerprint-like surface structures, simulating finger skin. Images were recorded under varying contact forces ranging from 1 N to 3 N. The spatial frequency components in the range of 0.1–1.0 mm−1 were extracted from these contact images, and a linear combination of these components was used to approximate human roughness perception recorded via the magnitude estimation method. The results indicate that for roughness specimens with rectangular or circular protrusions of surface wavelengths between 2 and 5 mm, the estimated roughness values achieved an average error comparable to the standard deviation of participants’ roughness ratings. These findings demonstrate the potential of macroscopic roughness estimation based on human-like tactile information processing and highlight the viability of vision-based sensing in replicating human roughness perception. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Development of Flexible Tactile Sensors and Their Applications)
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17 pages, 5489 KiB  
Article
Pd-Decorated SnO2 Nanofilm Integrated on Silicon Nanowires for Enhanced Hydrogen Sensing
by Tiejun Fang, Tianyang Mo, Xianwu Xu, Hongwei Tao, Hongbo Wang, Bingjun Yu and Zhi-Jun Zhao
Sensors 2025, 25(3), 655; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25030655 - 23 Jan 2025
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 846
Abstract
The development of reliable, highly sensitive hydrogen sensors is crucial for the safe implementation of hydrogen-based energy systems. This paper proposes a novel way to enhance the performance of hydrogen sensors through integrating Pd-SnO2 nanofilms on the substrate with silicon nanowires (SiNWs). [...] Read more.
The development of reliable, highly sensitive hydrogen sensors is crucial for the safe implementation of hydrogen-based energy systems. This paper proposes a novel way to enhance the performance of hydrogen sensors through integrating Pd-SnO2 nanofilms on the substrate with silicon nanowires (SiNWs). The samples were fabricated via a simple and cost-effective process, mainly consisting of metal-assisted chemical etching (MaCE) and electron beam evaporation. Structural and morphological characterizations were conducted using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The experimental results showed that, compared to those without SiNW structure or decorative Pd nanoparticles, the Pd-decorated SnO2 nanofilm integrated on the SiNW substrates exhibited significantly improved hydrogen sensing performance, achieving a response time of 9 s at 300 °C to 1.5% H2 and a detection limit of 1 ppm. The enhanced performance can be primarily attributed to the large surface area provided by SiNWs, the efficient hydrogen spillover effect facilitated by Pd nanoparticles, and the abundant oxygen vacancies present on the surface of the SnO2 nanofilm, as well as the Schottky barrier formed at the heterojunction interface between Pd and SnO2. This study demonstrates a promising approach for developing high-performance H2 sensors characterized by ultrafast response times and ultralow detection limits. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Development of Flexible Tactile Sensors and Their Applications)
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19 pages, 18714 KiB  
Article
Hardware Implementation for Triaxial Contact-Force Estimation from Stress Tactile Sensor Arrays: An Efficient Design Approach
by María-Luisa Pinto-Salamanca, Wilson-Javier Pérez-Holguín and José A. Hidalgo-López
Sensors 2024, 24(23), 7829; https://doi.org/10.3390/s24237829 - 7 Dec 2024
Viewed by 1225
Abstract
This paper presents a contribution to the state of the art in the design of tactile sensing algorithms that take advantage of the characteristics of generalized sparse matrix-vector multiplication to reduce the area, power consumption, and data storage required for real-time hardware implementation. [...] Read more.
This paper presents a contribution to the state of the art in the design of tactile sensing algorithms that take advantage of the characteristics of generalized sparse matrix-vector multiplication to reduce the area, power consumption, and data storage required for real-time hardware implementation. This work also addresses the challenge of implementing the hardware to execute multiaxial contact-force estimation algorithms from a normal stress tactile sensor array on a field-programmable gate-array development platform, employing a high-level description approach. This paper describes the hardware implementation of the proposed sparse algorithm and that of an algorithm previously reported in the literature, comparing the results of both hardware implementations with the software results already validated. The calculation of force vectors on the proposed hardware required an average time of 58.68 ms, with an estimation error of 12.6% for normal forces and 7.7% for tangential forces on a 10 × 10 taxel tactile sensor array. Some advantages of the developed hardware are that it does not require additional memory elements, achieves a 4× reduction in processing elements compared to a non-sparse implementation, and meets the requirements of being generalizable, scalable, and efficient, allowing an expansion of the applications of normal stress sensors in low-power tactile systems. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Development of Flexible Tactile Sensors and Their Applications)
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Review

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29 pages, 3268 KiB  
Review
Cilia-Inspired Bionic Tactile E-Skin: Structure, Fabrication and Applications
by Jiahe Yu, Muxi Ai, Cairong Liu, Hengchang Bi, Xing Wu, Wu Bin Ying and Zhe Yu
Sensors 2025, 25(1), 76; https://doi.org/10.3390/s25010076 - 26 Dec 2024
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1561
Abstract
The rapid advancement of tactile electronic skin (E-skin) has highlighted the effectiveness of incorporating bionic, force-sensitive microstructures in order to enhance sensing performance. Among these, cilia-like microstructures with high aspect ratios, whose inspiration is mammalian hair and the lateral line system of fish, [...] Read more.
The rapid advancement of tactile electronic skin (E-skin) has highlighted the effectiveness of incorporating bionic, force-sensitive microstructures in order to enhance sensing performance. Among these, cilia-like microstructures with high aspect ratios, whose inspiration is mammalian hair and the lateral line system of fish, have attracted significant attention for their unique ability to enable E-skin to detect weak signals, even in extreme conditions. Herein, this review critically examines recent progress in the development of cilia-inspired bionic tactile E-skin, with a focus on columnar, conical and filiform microstructures, as well as their fabrication strategies, including template-based and template-free methods. The relationship between sensing performance and fabrication approaches is thoroughly analyzed, offering a framework for optimizing sensitivity and resilience. We also explore the applications of these systems across various fields, such as medical diagnostics, motion detection, human–machine interfaces, dexterous robotics, near-field communication, and perceptual decoupling systems. Finally, we provide insights into the pathways toward industrializing cilia-inspired bionic tactile E-skin, aiming to drive innovation and unlock the technology’s potential for future applications. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Development of Flexible Tactile Sensors and Their Applications)
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