[As described in this story from The Debrief, researchers have developed a new type of skin for robots that has strong potential to enhance human-robot interactions, including (though it doesn’t use the term), medium-as-social-actor presence. Although this story doesn’t mention it, the researchers are from both Cambridge University and University College London (UCL’s news coverage is titled, “Improved electronic skin gives robots the human touch”). For more information, see coverage in Live Science as well as a webpage on lead author David Hardman’s website that has additional links, including to a 2:27 minute video on YouTube. –Matthew]

Robots that “Feel”: Breakthrough Robotic Skin Could Revolutionize Human-Robot Interactions

By Tim McMillan
June 17, 2025

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have unveiled a new type of robotic skin that could transform how machines interact with humans and their environment.

The development, published in the journal Science Robotics, brings us closer to machines that touch and feel, opening doors to more intuitive human-robot interactions and advanced robotics applications.

“Having different sensors for different types of touch leads to materials that are complex to make,” lead author Dr David Hardman from Cambridge’s Department of Engineering said in a press release. “We wanted to develop a solution that can detect multiple types of touch at once, but in a single material.”

For years, scientists have considered human skin the gold standard for building responsive robotic systems. Our skin is incredibly versatile and can detect pressure, temperature, texture, and even damage.

However, mimicking this complexity in artificial materials has been a persistent challenge. Traditional solutions, often built using microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), have faced serious hurdles, including difficulty bonding soft and rigid layers and issues with electrical interference.

Cambridge researchers have introduced an innovative solution to these long-standing challenges, by designing a new type of robotic skin made from a single layer of hydrogel, which is exceptionally responsive to environmental conditions and physical touch.

The key to the skin’s success lies in its unique construction. By utilizing electrical impedance tomography (EIT) techniques, the team created over 863,000 conductive pathways across the hydrogel membrane.

These pathways can detect at least six distinct types of stimuli, ranging from human touch to damage, multipoint insulated presses, and localized heating. This multisensory ability means the skin can not only “feel” physical contact but also gauge environmental factors and respond accordingly—much like human skin does.

The potential of this new technology extends far beyond the fields of robotics and AI. With its ability to detect changes in temperature, pressure, and touch, the robotic skin could play a transformative role in improving prosthetics, exoskeletons, and wearable medical devices. This offers users a promising future of greater comfort, functionality, and responsiveness.

For example, prosthetic limbs could become more intuitive, providing users with real-time sensory feedback from the artificial limb, making it easier to perform daily tasks like holding objects or feeling textures.

Researchers also explored how the hydrogel skin could be shaped and used in practical applications. In one particularly impressive demonstration, the team molded the hydrogel into the form of a human hand. This lifelike model highlighted the skin’s ability to sense touch and track the position of objects while also hinting at its promise for monitoring environmental conditions.

The hand-shaped skin could localize human touch, sense of the body’s position and even respond to the environment in ways that mimic human sensory functions. This could one day lead to prosthetics that allow people to move more naturally and interact with the world in a way that feels more familiar and intuitive.

The researchers took an innovative, data-driven approach to determine which sensory pathways should be actively monitored. By focusing on the most important signals, they’ve made the system more efficient, avoiding the problem of processing unnecessary data. This ability to filter and organize sensory information in real time paves the way for systems that are smarter and more responsive, making this technology a potential game-changer in functionality and practical use.

This flexibility means it has potential far beyond robotics, including medical diagnostics, wearable devices, and environmental monitoring. Researchers are already exploring how the hydrogel skin could be refined and applied in new areas.

As researchers work to bring the technology closer to real-world use, scaling up production and improving durability are key goals. The material still needs to become more resilient to handle the wear and tear of everyday applications. The researchers also hope to expand the skin’s sensory range to detect even more stimuli types, offering a richer, more detailed picture of its surroundings.

Nevertheless, with this breakthrough we could see the introduction of entirely new types of robots and devices that operate with the tactile sensitivity we associate with human skin.

Robots with a true sense of touch could dramatically improve interactions in fields such as healthcare, where precise, sensitive movements are crucial. Take surgical robots, for instance — adding this kind of skin could allow them to sense how much force they’re applying to tissue, helping surgeons work with greater precision and care.

In the world of consumer tech, wearables could also take a big step forward, becoming devices that not only monitor health data but also respond to touch and pressure, creating a more interactive and engaging experience for users.

Moreover, the implications of this research extends to the world of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. As the robotic skin gathers vast amounts of sensory data, it could be used to train AI systems that can better understand and predict human behavior.

“We’re able to squeeze a lot of information from these materials – they can take thousands of measurements very quickly,” Dr. Hardman explained. “They’re measuring lots of different things at once, over a large surface area.”

Imagine a robot outfitted with this sensory skin. It could pick up on small details, like the firmness of a handshake or the warmth of someone’s hand, and adjust its response in real-time. This kind of technology could pave the way for robots that interact with people in a more intuitive and empathetic way, better tuned to human needs.

Ultimately, this breakthrough in hydrogel-based robotic skin marks a major step toward building machines that are more sensitive and responsive and feel a little closer to humans in how they engage with the world.

“We’re not quite at the level where the robotic skin is as good as human skin, but we think it’s better than anything else out there at the moment,” study co-author Dr Thomas George Thuruthel said. “Our method is flexible and easier to build than traditional sensors, and we’re able to calibrate it using human touch for a range of tasks.”