Magnetized Microcilia Array-Based Self-Powered Electronic Skin for Micro-Scaled 3D Morphology Recognition and High-capacity Communication

摘要

Electronic skin (e-skin), which mimics the tactile perception as human skin, isof interest to advance robotics, prosthetics, and human-machine interactions(HMI). However, the construction of artificial e-skin with the simulated functionof morphology recognition and stimuli response remains challenging.Here, the design of a multifunctional and self-powered e-skin system basedon the whisker-like magnetized micro-cilia array (MMCA) and the underneathflexible coils is reported. Owing to the excellent flexibility of the MMCA, theadaptive micro-cilia bending can be produced according to the tactile inputsor surface morphologies. With built-in magnetic moments, the MMCA deformationthus alters the magnetic flux distribution, which induces an electromotiveforce (voltage) in the coils for pressure detection and quantitativerecognition of micro-scaled 3D morphologies. It is shown that using the distinctvoltage intensities and waveforms, the optimized e-skin can be appliedfor real-time healthcare monitoring, Braille identification, and reconstructionof relief information. By customizing the magnetic moment alignments inMMCA, one e-skin device can further produce distinguishable signals to buildup multi-commands for efficient HMI, e.g., underwater Morse code communication.Along with temperature tolerance and environmental immunity, thee-skin exhibits the potential to serve as an effective channel for intelligent 3Dtopology recognition and high-capacity communications.