Self-Powered Multimodal Sensing Using Energy-Generating Solar Skin for Robotics and Smart Wearables

Wearable electronic devices-laden systems such as electronic-skin (e-Skin) have been explored in recent years to enable advances in applications such as Internet of Things, healthcare, and robotics. The power requirement of multitudes of devices in the e-Skin is a major hurdle for its wider uptake. Herein, a solar cells-based energy generating e-Skin is presented and how the energy outputs of solar cells can be innovatively processed for multimodal sensing is demonstrated. By reading the variations and energy output patterns of the e-Skin, present on a robotic arm, multiple parameters can be sensed including object motion, color detection, and ambient temperature. With the accurate tracking of shadow sensing, for an object moving in horizontal and vertical directions with respect to the solar skin, information can be obtained such as the velocity and acceleration of moving object. In this regard, the presented e-Skin can also be seen to have vision capability. The presented multifunctional energy-generating e-Skin shows an energy surplus of >1 mW (effective module area of 20 cm(2)) under white light illumination of 4,450 lux, which is sufficient for continuous powering of portable low-powered devices. Finally, we demonstrate the e-Skin application for energy-autonomous hand gestures recognition in robotics.