Smart E-skins for Life-like Soft Robot Perception

Nature, through millennia of evolution, has endowed living organisms with unmatched sensory adaptability. As robotics weave more deeply into the fabric of human society, a compelling challenge emerges: mimicking the sensory intelligence intrinsic to these life forms. The intricate synergy between the organism’s skin and brain, delivering unrivalled sensory insight and data interpretation, epitomises a domain in robotics still uncharted. Cultivating such perceptive sense in robots is crucial; it heralds a future with enhanced safety and adaptability in human-robot interactions, revealing new horizons for innovative applications.SELECT aims to bridge this perception gap in soft robotics – a rapidly evolving robotic field inspired by the softness of living beings. At the heart of SELECT lies the ambition to pioneer smart electronic skins (e-skins) that resonate with the sensory capability of organisms. SELECT's objectives include:1. Develop multi-modal e-skins for holistic perception.2. Build models to simulate the integration of e-skins and robots.3. Explore automated, adaptive e-skin designs.4. Advance learning algorithms to decode e-skin data.5. Streamline e-skin deployment and training.SELECT's outcomes promise to redefine soft robot perception, synergising e-skin sensory attributes with state-of-the-art machine learning. Beyond advancing robotics, SELECT envisions reshaping our interaction dynamics with intelligent systems, championing a new epoch of human-machine symbiosis.