Soft robotics mechanosensing

We focus on studying ways to encode mechanical information with soft sensing systems to provide future robots with exteroception and proprioception capabilities, as naturally as possible. Recently, we have shown developments on soft artificial mechanosensing by exploiting smart layouts in combination with soft materials, like elastomers and conductive textiles. Here, we briefly discuss some basic requirements against the significant results of state-of-the-art. Then, we report two case studies in which normal and tangential forces, as well as bending and indentation stimuli, are discriminated, respectively. The aim is to lay the ground for further discussions and investigations in order to target real applications with soft robots and wearable systems.