Youth Talks 第八十期（中文）| 柔性触觉传感器和致动器

Over the last several decades, human-machine interactions have been limited to vision and audio channels. The introduction of haptics technologies has enabled users to receive mechanical feedbacks in the form of virtual touch. While the rapidly advancing haptics technologies in wearable devices and surface haptic devices have enabled many exciting applications in virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), telecommunication, and teleoperation, they still suffer from issues in bulkiness, comfortability, and consistency. The solutions to these issues lie in the fundamental understanding of the multi-physics interactions in the human-machine interface, which include contact deformation, capillary formation, electric field, heat transfer, material non-linearity, and their complicated coupling effects. In this talk, Dr. Ma will discuss models on the multi-physics interactions in human-machine interface, with a special emphasis on modeling the finger friction variation on textured surfaces. This talk will also include how the multi-physics models have been applied in developing new wearable sensors, actuators, and surface haptics devices. The discussed models lay the foundation to develop haptics artificial materials (metamaterials) that can deliver any desired haptics performances for the next generation of human-machine mechanical interfaces and Metaverse.

Dr. Yuan Ma received his bachelor’s and M.S. degrees in mechanical engineering and materials science from Tsinghua University, Beijing in 2011 and 2013, respectively. He received his Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California, Berkeley in 2018. He is currently an Assistant Professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. His research interest includes micro/nano scale mechanical and tribological behavior of human-machine interfaces, haptics metamaterials development, wearable devices with piezoelectret materials, and application of artificial intelligence in human-machine interactions. He has authored 12 peer-reviewed journal papers in Science Robotics, Advanced Materials, ACS Nano, Advanced Functional Materials, ACS Applied Materials and Interfaces, Applied Physics Letters, IEEE Transaction on Haptics, and IEEE Transaction on Magnetics. 

Unlike conventional rigid robots, soft robots have gained significant attention in the robotics community due to their excellent human-robot interaction capabilities. However, achieving similar levels of multimodal, high-performance motion as rigid robots while maintaining the structural compliance of soft robots remains a huge challenge, which is also one of the key limitations preventing soft robots from industrial applications. In this talk, I will introduce design approaches for multimodal soft actuation from three perspectives: how to realize multiple motion modes and high output force with conventional pneumatic methods, how to achieve high positioning accuracy and stiffness tuning through antagonistic actuation, and how to leverage innovative origami structures to enable all-purpose motion modes. Finally, I will discuss the potential of combining origami structures and multimodal soft actuation to enrich haptic interactions in both the virtual world and the physical world, aiming to open new technical pathways in the field of human-robot interaction.

Dr. Zhuang Zhang, Postdoctoral Fellow at Westlake University, received his Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2021. His research interests include flexible and soft-rigid hybrid actuators, origami robots, and multimodal haptics. In the past three years, he has published over 10 papers as the first or corresponding author in leading journals and conferences such as Nature Machine Intelligence, Nature Communications, Science Advances, and IEEE Transactions on Robotics. He serves as an associate editor and young editorial board member for journals and conferences including ICRA, Cyborg and Bionic Systems, and Soft Science. Dr. Zhang has been recognized with prestigious awards such as the China Top 10 Cutting-Edge Sci-Tech Talents – Innovation Contribution Award, the IROS New Generation Star, and the Outstanding Postdoctoral Fellow at Westlake University. 

The haptic interface enhances tactile perception for users in VR/AR, gaming, social media, and robotics. Conventional haptic interfaces are often bulky, grounded or require connection to external instruments. To free users from these constraints, electrotactile technology offers a promising solution. In this talk, I will introduce our recent advances in wearable electrotactile interfaces for hands, along with the personalized virtual touching experiences enabled by this platform. Through the integration of miniaturized wireless microelectronics with ultra-soft, stretchable, bioadhesive and permeable materials, we developed a series of fully integrated haptic interfaces that characterized by an ultra-thin and breathable e-skin form, cable-free operation, stable electrode-skin interface, and sweat-insensitive performance. Additionally, the large-area high density electrodes array facilitates easy calibration of electrotactile thresholds distribution across the whole hand. Our investigation of thresholds revealed significant differences in sensory sensitivity across different parts of the hand and these features vary considerably among individuals. Furthermore, we found that dynamic feedback patterns are significantly easier to distinguish compared to static feedback. Thus, encoding dynamic tactile information into threshold-calibrated stimulation waveforms enables a personalized electrotactile experience for each user. We also demonstrated the potential of personalized electrotactile technology in tactile recovery in hypoesthesia patients. Through these demonstrations, we aim to make enhanced and virtual touching more realistic and accessible to everyone.

Dr. Kuanming Yao is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), working in Integrated & Interconnected Bioelectronics Lab (i2bl) with Prof. Sam Emaminejad’s research group. After he obtained his bachelor’s degree in Zhejiang University in 2019, he pursued the Ph.D. degree in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, City University of Hong Kong (CityU), under the supervision of Prof. Xinge Yu (Member of the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences) and Prof. Lidai Wang and graduated in 2023. He was also a postdoctoral researcher in CityU from 2023 to 2024. Dr. Yao’s research interests include implantable and wearable bioelectronic systems, electrochemical sensing and stimulation interfaces, soft electrotactile and human-machine interfaces, etc. He has cumulatively published 59 journal articles, and serves as the first (or co-first) author of a dozen of top-notch journal articles, including Nature Machine Intelligence, Nature Electronics, Science Advances (2), Chemical Society Reviews, Matter, etc. He was cited over 2100 times and with an h-index of 31. Dr. Yao has served as invited reviewer for top journals such as Nature and Nature Machine Intelligence, and currently he is also the editorial member of Discover Electronics and guest editor of Biosensors. During his Ph.D., he won the Outstanding Academic Performance Awards (CityU) for three consecutive years, and his thesis won the HKMHDIA Student Research Award (2021-2022).

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王党校

北京航空航天大学

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研讨嘉宾

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陈思

江苏大学

钟俊文

澳门大学

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