System-Level Integration and Multimodal Signal Acquisition in Electronic Skin: A Review and Demonstration

Electronic skin (E-skin) technologies emulate the tactile and sensory capabilities of human skin, enabling perception of pressure, strain, temperature, and other external stimuli for intelligent robots and wearable systems. This review summarizes recent progress in materials, structural designs, sensing mechanisms, and system-level integration that have advanced the performance and functionality of E-skin platforms. Particular attention is given to multimodal tactile sensing and embedded signal acquisition strategies that enable real-time recognition of tactile patterns and gestures. Advances in flexible architectures, hybrid-frequency sampling, and low-power data acquisition circuits have enhanced the reliability, scalability, and temporal resolution of modern E-skin systems. As a demonstration, a 36-channel hybrid-frequency tactile sensing platform was developed by the authors to illustrate the practical implementation of multimodal signal fusion and robotic interaction. Finally, current challenges and future directions-including large-area uniformity, intelligent calibration, and adaptive perception-are discussed to guide the transition from laboratory prototypes to deployable robotic skin applications.