Improving Sensing Coverage and Compliance of 3D-Printed Artificial Skins Through Multi-Modal Sensing and Soft Materials

• URL: http://arxiv.org/abs/2604.25563v1
• Date: Tue, 28 Apr 2026 12:32:35 GMT
• Title: Improving Sensing Coverage and Compliance of 3D-Printed Artificial Skins Through Multi-Modal Sensing and Soft Materials
• Abstract summary: 3D-printed artificial skins are a scalable approach to whole-body tactile and proximity coverage.<n>We present a hybrid time-of-flight (ToF) and self-capacitance (SC) sensing skin that demonstrates multi-modal sensing integration.<n>We show that combining ToF and SC modalities enables contact detection, scene reconstruction, and pressure-correlated tactile responses with the compliant covering.
• Score: 64.72383971121094
• License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Abstract: 3D-printed artificial skins are a scalable approach to whole-body tactile and proximity coverage, but prior implementations have been limited to unimodal sensing and rigid materials. To improve the practical usability of 3D-printed artificial skins, we present a hybrid time-of-flight (ToF) and self-capacitance (SC) sensing skin that demonstrates multi-modal sensing integration, soft compliant coverings for impact absorption and pressure sensing, and a streamlined electrical interface between printed conductive traces and external electronics. We show that combining ToF and SC modalities enables contact detection, scene reconstruction, and pressure-correlated tactile responses with the compliant covering by deploying six artificial skin units with 40 sensing elements over an FR3 robot arm.

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