ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the strategies and technologies for the exploitation of electronic skin (e-skin) in reconstructing tactile information. It highlights the latest breakthroughs and recent advances in the e-skins and artificial tactile sensing systems for robotic and prosthetics applications. The chapter introduces the human sense of touch along with the physiology of the human skin and provides a comprehensive overview of the state-of-the-art tactile sensors. Being inspired by the unique structure of the human skin, several efforts have been made to develop artificial skins that combine a wide variety of tactile sensors to mimic the human sensory system. The human skin acts as the protective and flexible waterproof barrier, which separates the human being from the outside environment. The chapter describes major technical details of transduction mechanisms in the e-skins such as piezoresistivity, capacitance, and piezoelectricity with their merits and demerits. Sensors for prosthetic hands transduce various modalities of tactile stimuli aiming at recreating naturalistic perception.
