In recent years, there has been a paradigm shift in robotics and autonomous systems, with the transition from preprogrammed, structured environments to highly dynamic and unstructured real-world settings. During this transition, physical interaction has become increasingly crucial, putting tactile and proximity sensing at the forefront of research. Accurately and continuously capturing the state of an environment from “approach” to “contact” is indispensable for safe human-robot collaboration, handling unknown or deformable objects, and achieving dexterous manipulation. This special issue focuses on the latest advancements and future prospects in the fields of tactile and proximity sensors. This collection contains 15 excellent papers that broadly include three major research trends. The first involves the fundamental development of novel sensing hardware. These studies presented ambitious hardware innovations based on new materials and principles, such as flexible microstrain sensors, catheter-type sensors for medical applications, microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based multimodal devices, and lightweight optical sensors constructed using transparent flexible resins. The second trend highlights the practical applications of sensor integration and advanced data processing. Combining algorithms and multimodal methods, such as seamless hybrid sensing using Time-of-Flight (ToF) and capacitance, computational approaches for estimating the internal stiffness of flexible objects, and machine learning for predicting grasp configurations, has demonstrated ways to overcome the limitations of individual sensors to acquire more robust perception. Furthermore, the third trend shows application development for real-world tasks. This includes manipulation control for continuum robots and highly dynamic tasks, safety evaluations in human-robot interactions, wearable haptic feedback devices, and precise surface inspection systems for industrial applications. The editors hope that all readers will consider the selected papers informative and inspiring. We hope that this collection will act as a catalyst for expanding this vital research area and promote further interdisciplinary contributions. Finally, we express our deepest gratitude to the authors for their outstanding contributions and the reviewers for their dedicated time and insightful feedback.
Suzuki et al. (Fri,) studied this question.