Monolithic design and on-demand laser printing of freeform-reconfigurable and fast-responsive electronic skins for noncontact human-machine interactions

Abstract The emerging virtual reality and augmented reality technologies stimulate innovations in interfaces for human interaction with physical/virtual objects. Noncontact thermoreceptor-inspired electronic skins (TRE-skins) can largely expand the interactive space, creating more protective, hygienic, and immersive experiences. However, the interaction efficiency is significantly impeded by the slow signal acquisition rate and complicated data encoding process, which arise from the sluggish response/recovery and narrow linear detection range of the state-of-the-art temperature sensors. Here, we develop a single-layer porous TRE-skin with seamless-interfaced laser-induced graphene electrodes and laser-induced carbon sensing channels by finely regulating the interactions between the femtosecond laser and the thin precursor film. Profiting from the tailorable graphitic structure and heat transfer pathways, the TRE-skin exhibits a high sensitivity (−0.221%·°C –1 ) in a wide linear range (from −20 °C to 140 °C) and fast response/recovery behavior (580 ms/740 ms). Notably, arbitrary kirigami patterns can be introduced to TRE-skins in the single-step on-demand laser printing process, rendering the devices with freeform reconfigurability. The TRE-skin is intimately integrated on the curvilinear surface of the robots and deployed as a command interface in a machine learning-assisted robot teleoperation system, showcasing its implementation in noncontact human–machine interactions.