Tactile Sensors and Sensing System 2019

Dear Collegues,

Tactile sensors acquire information through touch; measurands include temperature, vibration, softness, texture, shape, composition, and shear and normal forces. Tactile sensors are basically distributed sensors which translate mechanical and physical variables and pain stimuli into electrical variables. Contact data are further processed to decode high-level information such as object size and surface contact features. Tactile arrays should be mechanically flexible (i.e., conformable to the object on which they are mounted) and stretchable, and tactile information decoding must be implemented in real time. The development of artificial tactile sensing is a big challenge, as it involves numerous research areas. Tactile sensors have been receiving increasing and unprecedented interest by the scientific community since some seminal works were published in the nineties; since then, roboticists and researchers in the biomedical and health care domain started publishing their results in tactile sensors with an increasing pace. New research areas and application domains such as prosthetics, soft robotics, haptics, electronic skin, and virtual reality have received a boost by the advancements in technology, devices, systems, and applications. In this Special Issue, we aim to consolidate recent achievements and findings in tactile sensors and to make a comprehensive assessment of meaningful and relevant results over the past years.

The Special Issue aims to pave the way of future research directions and also open new perspectives enabled by recent achievements. Special attention will be given to novel applications in (but not limited to) health care, human–machine interaction, virtual/augmented reality, arts, and tactile internet. In this Special Issue, we focus on both insights and advancements in tactile sensing with the goal of bridging different research areas (e.g., material science, computer science, electronics, robotics, neuroscience, mechanics, sensors, MEMS/NEMS, addictive and 3D manufacturing, bio and neuro-engineering). We would like to receive commentaries, perspectives, and insightful reviews on related topics as well as technological breakthroughs of original works, civil, and industrial applications in both short communications and full papers.

Prof. Dr. Maurizio Valle
Guest Editor

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