Tactile Sensors for Advanced Intelligent Systems

With the capability of completing a task or achieving a goal in an uncertain environment while simultaneously having the characteristics of adaptability, self-optimization, self-diagnostics, and self-maintenance, intelligent systems have witnessed extraordinary progress in recent years. These advances involve robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning, automation, human-machine interfaces, the Internet of Things, control theory and control systems, smart and responsive materials, intelligent sensing systems, and programmed self-assembly. As an active technology conveying mechanical stimuli to a wide range of electrical and optical signals, tactile sensors are essential elements of intelligent systems and have accelerated the emergence of advanced intelligent systems by enabling the accurate recognition and safe interaction of humans and machines, smart sensing of control systems, precise control of robotics, and synergetic work of artificial intelligent systems. Herein, the recent advances of tactile sensors for advanced intelligent systems are reviewed, emphasizing these with the working principles of piezoresistance, resistance, capacitance, piezoelectricity, triboelectricity, and optics. Representative examples of their applications in advanced intelligent systems, such as robotics, human-machine interfaces, and artificial intelligence, are explored. The remaining challenges and perspectives in this emerging field are also discussed.