Development of large-area, high-speed electronic skins is a grand challenge for robotics, prosthetics, and human-machine interfaces, but is fundamentally limited by wiring complexity and data bottlenecks. Here, we introduce Single-Pixel Tactile Skin (SPTS), a paradigm that uses compressive sampling to reconstruct rich tactile information from an entire sensor array via a single output channel. This is achieved through a direct circuit-level implementation where each sensing element, equipped with a miniature microcontroller, contributes a dynamically weighted analog signal to a global sum, performing distributed compressed sensing in hardware. Our flexible, daisy-chainable design simplifies wiring to a few input lines and one output, and significantly reduces measurement requirements compared to raster scanning methods. We demonstrate the system's performance by achieving object classification at an effective 3500 FPS and by capturing transient dynamics, resolving an 8 ms projectile impact into 23 frames. A key feature is the support for adaptive reconstruction, where sensing fidelity scales with measurement time. This allows for rapid contact localization using as little as 7% of total data, followed by progressive refinement to a high-fidelity image - a capability critical for responsive robotic systems. This work offers an efficient pathway towards large-scale tactile intelligence for robotics and human-machine interfaces.

Photon scattering has traditionally limited the ability of near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) to extract accurate, layer-specific information from the brain. This limitation restricts its clinical utility for precise neurological monitoring. To address this, we introduce an AI-driven, high-density NIRS system optimized to provide real-time, layer-specific oxygenation data from the brain cortex, specifically targeting acute neuro-emergencies. Our system integrates high-density NIRS reflectance data with a neural network trained on MRI-based synthetic datasets. This approach achieves robust cortical oxygenation accuracy across diverse anatomical variations. In simulations, our AI-assisted NIRS demonstrated a strong correlation (R2=0.913) with actual cortical oxygenation, markedly outperforming conventional methods (R2=0.469). Furthermore, biomimetic phantom experiments confirmed its superior anatomical reliability (R2=0.986) compared to standard commercial devices (R2=0.823). In clinical validation with healthy subjects and ischemic stroke patients, the system distinguished between the two groups with an AUC of 0.943. This highlights its potential as an accessible, high-accuracy diagnostic tool for emergency and point-of-care settings. These results underscore the system's capability to advance neuro-monitoring precision through AI, enabling timely, data-driven decisions in critical care environments.

Telemanipulation of deformable objects requires high precision and dexterity from the users, which can be increased by kinesthetic and tactile feedback. However, the object shape can change dynamically, causing ambiguous perception of its alignment and hence errors in the robot positioning. Therefore, the tilt angle and position classification problem has to be solved to present a clear tactile pattern to the user. This work presents a telemanipulation system for plastic pipettes consisting of a multi-contact haptic device LinkGlide to deliver haptic feedback at the users' palm and two tactile sensors array embedded in the 2-finger Robotiq gripper. We propose a novel approach based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) to detect the tilt and position while grasping deformable objects. The CNN generates a mask based on recognized tilt and position data to render further multi-contact tactile stimuli provided to the user during the telemanipulation. The study has shown that using the CNN algorithm and the preset mask, tilt, and position recognition by users is increased from 9.67% using the direct data to 82.5%.

Thin-film inspection on large-area substrates in coating manufacture remains a critical parameter to ensure product quality; however, extending the inspection process precisely over a large area presents major challenges, due to the limitations of the available inspection equipment. An additional manipulation problem arises when automating the inspection process, as the silicon wafer requires movement constraints to ensure accurate measurements and to prevent damage. Furthermore, there are other increasingly important large-area industrial applications, such as Roll-to-Roll (R2R) manufacturing where coating thickness inspection introduces additional challenges. This paper presents an autonomous inspection system using a robotic manipulator with a novel learned constraint manifold to control a wafer to its calibration point, and a novel multi-sensor array with high potential for scalability into large substrate areas. We demonstrate that the manipulator can perform required motions whilst adhering to movement constraints. We further demonstrate that the sensor array can perform thickness measurements statically with an error of $<2\%$ compared to a commercial reflectometer, and through the use of a manipulator can dynamically detect angle variations $>0.5^\circ$ from the calibration point whilst monitoring the RMSE and $R^2$ over 1406 data points. These features are potentially useful for detecting displacement variations in R2R manufacturing processes.

Permanent magnet tracking using the external sensor array is crucial for the accurate localization of wireless capsule endoscope robots. Traditional tracking algorithms, based on the magnetic dipole model and Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) algorithm, face challenges related to computational delays and the need for initial position estimation. More recently proposed neural network-based approaches often require extensive hardware calibration and real-world data collection, which are time-consuming and labor-intensive. To address these challenges, we propose MobilePosenet, a lightweight neural network architecture that leverages depthwise separable convolutions to minimize computational cost and a channel attention mechanism to enhance localization accuracy. Besides, the inputs to the network integrate the sensors' coordinate information and random noise, compensating for the discrepancies between the theoretical model and the actual magnetic fields and thus allowing MobilePosenet to be trained entirely on theoretical data. Experimental evaluations conducted in a \(90 \times 90 \times 80\) mm workspace demonstrate that MobilePosenet exhibits excellent 5-DOF localization accuracy ($1.54 \pm 1.03$ mm and $2.24 \pm 1.84^{\circ}$) and inference speed (0.9 ms) against state-of-the-art methods trained on real-world data. Since network training relies solely on theoretical data, MobilePosenet can eliminate the hardware calibration and real-world data collection process, improving the generalizability of this permanent magnet localization method and the potential for rapid adoption in different clinical settings.

Performing simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) in low-visibility conditions, such as environments filled with smoke, dust and transparent objets, has long been a challenging task. Sensors like cameras and Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) are significantly limited under these conditions, whereas ultrasonic sensors offer a more robust alternative. However, the low angular resolution, slow update frequency, and limited detection accuracy of ultrasonic sensors present barriers for SLAM. In this work, we propose a novel end-to-end generative ultrasonic SLAM framework. This framework employs a sensor array with overlapping fields of view, leveraging the inherently low angular resolution of ultrasonic sensors to implicitly encode spatial features in conjunction with the robot's motion. Consecutive time frame data is processed through a sliding window mechanism to capture temporal features. The spatiotemporally encoded sensor data is passed through multiple modules to generate dense scan point clouds and robot pose transformations for map construction and odometry. The main contributions of this work include a novel ultrasonic sensor array that spatiotemporally encodes the surrounding environment, and an end-to-end generative SLAM framework that overcomes the inherent defects of ultrasonic sensors. Several real-world experiments demonstrate the feasibility and robustness of the proposed framework.

Accurately identifying gas mixtures and estimating their concentrations are crucial across various industrial applications using gas sensor arrays. However, existing models face challenges in generalizing across heterogeneous datasets, which limits their scalability and practical applicability. To address this problem, this study develops two novel deep-learning models that integrate temporal graph structures for enhanced performance: a Graph-Enhanced Capsule Network (GraphCapsNet) employing dynamic routing for gas mixture classification and a Graph-Enhanced Attention Network (GraphANet) leveraging self-attention for concentration estimation. Both models were validated on datasets from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) Machine Learning Repository and a custom dataset, demonstrating superior performance in gas mixture identification and concentration estimation compared to recent models. In classification tasks, GraphCapsNet achieved over 98.00% accuracy across multiple datasets, while in concentration estimation, GraphANet attained an R2 score exceeding 0.96 across various gas components. Both GraphCapsNet and GraphANet exhibited significantly higher accuracy and stability, positioning them as promising solutions for scalable gas analysis in industrial settings.

Estimating the location of contact is a primary function of artificial tactile sensing apparatuses that perceive the environment through touch. Existing contact localization methods use flat geometry and uniform sensor distributions as a simplifying assumption, limiting their ability to be used on 3D surfaces with variable density sensing arrays. This paper studies contact localization on an artificial skin embedded with mutual capacitance tactile sensors, arranged non-uniformly in an unknown distribution along a semi-conical 3D geometry. A fully connected neural network is trained to localize the touching points on the embedded tactile sensors. The studied online model achieves a localization error of $5.7 \pm 3.0$ mm. This research contributes a versatile tool and robust solution for contact localization that is ambiguous in shape and internal sensor distribution.

Accurate estimation of interaction forces is crucial for achieving fine, dexterous control in robotic systems. Although tactile sensor arrays offer rich sensing capabilities, their effective use has been limited by challenges such as calibration complexities, nonlinearities, and deformation. In this paper, we tackle these issues by presenting a novel method for obtaining 3D force estimation using tactile sensor arrays. Unlike existing approaches that focus on specific or decoupled force components, our method estimates full 3D interaction forces across an array of distributed sensors, providing comprehensive real-time feedback. Through systematic data collection and model training, our approach overcomes the limitations of prior methods, achieving accurate and reliable tactile-based force estimation. Besides, we integrate this estimation in a real-time control loop, enabling implicit, stable force regulation that is critical for precise robotic manipulation. Experimental validation on the Allegro robot hand with uSkin sensors demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach in real-time control, and its ability to enhance the robot's adaptability and dexterity.

Shape sensing of medical continuum robots is important both for closed-loop control as well as for enabling the clinician to visualize the robot inside the body. There is a need for inexpensive, but accurate shape sensing technologies. This paper proposes the use of magnetic ball chains as a means of generating shape-specific magnetic fields that can be detected by an external array of Hall effect sensors. Such a ball chain, encased in a flexible polymer sleeve, could be inserted inside the lumen of any continuum robot to provide real-time shape feedback. The sleeve could be removed, as needed, during the procedure to enable use of the entire lumen. To investigate this approach, a shape-sensing model for a steerable catheter tip is derived and an observability and sensitivity analysis are presented. Experiments show maximum estimation errors of 7.1% and mean of 2.9% of the tip position with respect to total length.