Future goals include incorporating this advanced skin into human prosthetics, automotive systems, and disaster relief tools to enhance tactile sensation and environmental responsiveness.

The material can detect a wide range of signals, including temperature, pH, pressure, humidity, and biological markers like hormones and proteins, responding by changing conductivity or releasing substances.

While not yet matching the effectiveness of human skin, the robotic skin outperforms existing alternatives and can be calibrated using human touch for various applications, according to co-author Thomas George Thuruthel.

The artificial skin was rigorously tested on a sculpted robotic hand, subjected to taps, heat, and cuts, with over 1.7 million data points collected to train machine learning models for accurate touch recognition.

This new skin employs a single multi-modal sensor to detect multiple stimuli, making it more robust and cost-effective compared to traditional electronic skins that use multiple sensors, addressing previous issues like interference and damage.

This innovative material can be molded into various shapes, equipped with electrodes, and responds to stimuli by conducting electricity, expanding, or releasing substances, similar to biological responses like sweating.

A machine learning model was trained on extensive data collected from tests—over 860,000 data points from a robotic hand subjected to various stimuli—to recognize different types of touch and integrate with robotic systems.

Published in the journal Science Robotics on June 11, the findings highlight the technology's potential in humanoid robots, prosthetics, automotive industries, and disaster relief efforts, marking significant progress in robotic tactile sensing.

The skin mimics nerve functions by conducting electricity and responding to stimuli such as heat, with the ability to expand and release substances when warmed, similar to human sweating.

Researchers emphasize that this development represents the first creation of a material with properties identical to natural tissue, opening new avenues for biomedical and technological innovations.

Scientists have developed a groundbreaking artificial skin made from a malleable, conductive gelatin-based material that mimics human skin's properties, including sensing touch, temperature, pain, and environmental stimuli.

The new skin is self-healing within seconds and combines graphene with conductive polymers, making it soft, durable, and capable of sensing multiple modalities with a single sensor, reducing complexity and cost.

The research aims to revolutionize applications across robotics, healthcare, and military sectors, including creating self-healing robots, enhancing prosthetics, and developing miniature military robots capable of detecting and disabling enemy vehicles.