New Insights into Bionic Tactile Sensors

Dear Colleagues,

Bio-inspired by the mechanoreceptors within human skin, a variety of tactile sensors have been designed applying different perception mechanisms, such as piezo-electrical, piezo-resistive, capacitive, triboelectric, and visual principles. Such sensors may materialize in the form of sensitive electronic skin, wearable electronics, flexible gloves, and biomimetic fingertips, etc. These tactile sensors are not only applicable to the measurement of dynamic and static forces, but are also able to perceive various tactile information in contact-rich scenarios. Currently, it has become indispensable to carry out dexterous manipulation for robots, the tele-operation of human–robot interactions, haptic rehabilitation for prosthesis, and delicate assistance in robotic surgery, etc.

With this Special Issue, we aim to collect creative ideas from diverse research fields on novel designs of tactile sensors, the development of tactile sensor arrays/networks/systems, effective perception algorithms or data fusion methods, tactile-based controls, and multifarious applications of tactile sensors. Specifically, it enables the recognition of object property, e.g., roughness, texture, hardness, edge, shape, the measurement of applied force/torque—e.g., 6-axis force/torque, dynamic force, static force, stimuli locations, and their variation—and the estimation of contact status, e.g., time instant to contact, contact force value, force direction, contact point, and contact area. All new insights into bionic tactile sensors are welcome in order to discuss the arising problems and challenges in relevant areas and to advance their development.

Topics include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Design of tactile finger, electronic skin, and other types of tactile sensors;
• Theoretical analysis and numerical modelling to reveal the mechanism of haptic perception;
• Feature definition, extraction, and selection algorithms for tactile signal processing;
• Data fusion methods and novel algorithms for tactile perception;
• Robotic finger/gripper/hand and prosthesis equipped with the capability of haptic perception;
• Tactile-enabled human robot/computer interaction;
• Tactile manipulation or control;
• Tactile-based applications.

Dr. Longhui Qin
Dr. Yilei Zhang
Dr. Jianxiong Zhu
Guest Editors

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