The iMED team of the Suzhou Institute for Advanced Study of the University of Science and Technology of China has made a new breakthrough in underwater multimodal electronic skin technology

The iMED team of the Suzhou Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Science and Technology of China has made a new breakthrough in underwater multimodal electronic skin technology

Recently, the Intelligent Medical Device Research Center (iMED) of the Suzhou Institute for Advanced Study of the University of Science and Technology of China has worked closely with the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences to develop the world's first multi-modal electronic skin applied to underwater scenes, realizing the integrated monitoring of underwater tactile signals and environmental signals
。 The results of the study were published in the internationally renowned academic journal Advanced Functional Materials as "Aquatic Skin Enabled by Multi-modality Iontronic Sensing
。

Due to the complex and changeable nature of the underwater environment, electronic skin faces many challenges in underwater applications, such as the inability to achieve multimodal haptic and environmental signal integrated perception, high structural softness and high signal fidelity
.
In this work, a new mechanism of environment-integrated encapsulation-free underwater ionization tactile sensing is proposed by using the natural ionization interface between the water environment and the electrode surface, which realizes high-precision, high-accuracy and multi-parameter measurement at any water depth, and then designs a series of intelligent solutions
for underwater scene applications.
Using this tactile sensing strategy (Aquatic Skin) in an underwater environment, the team integrated multimodal sensing capabilities, including contact pressure, tactile image, depth, temperature, and salt, for the first time in a flexible, unencapsulated underwater multimodal electronic skin system degree, has potential application value in many scenarios, including marine activities and diving safety, underwater robot fine operation, aquatic life movement monitoring and many other fields
.

The first authors of this paper are Dr.
Cheng Xi and Guo Chenhui master's students, and Professor Pan Tingrui and researcher Chang Yu are the corresponding authors of the paper, which was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Overseas Joint Fund, Youth Fund and Guangdong Province "Pearl River Talents" double innovation team, Key funding for scientific research start-up funds and other projects of Suzhou Institute for
Advanced Study of University of Science and Technology of China.

Underwater multimodal electronic skin and its application in underwater vehicle tactile recognition and diving health and safety monitoring

Links to papers: https://onlinelibrary.
wiley.
com/doi/10.
1002/adfm.
202205947