Robotic Electronic Skin for Contact Sensing and Robot Interaction

Robotic electronic skin (E-skin) links contact measurements to perception, manipulation and physical interaction. This critical narrative review compares sensing mechanisms, materials, acquisition and computation through published robot tasks. The synthesis identifies protocol-specific choices: holding requires a slip cue that guides a feasible correction; following requires the controlled pose error rather than localization accuracy alone; insertion comparisons depend on whether contact release and retry are allowed. Magnetic, capacitive, piezoresistive and multimodal cases extend the analysis beyond tactile imaging. Within-study comparisons are distinguished from demonstrations, device characterization and commercial specifications, with trial counts and uncertainty retained. Eligibility, source roles and revision-stage search records are documented; selection remains purposeful. The installed sensing-controller pair under a declared action allowance is the proposed unit of comparison. Complete-path energy, timing-fault response and performance after service remain insufficiently characterized in the inspected evidence.