Bio‐Inspired Artificial Ionic Mechanoreceptor

ABSTRACT Recent advances in materials science and rehabilitation robotics have shown strong potential for active prosthetics capable of interacting with tools and objects. The key requirement for future active prosthetics is realistic tactile feedback. Despite significant progress, conventional tactile sensors cannot fully reproduce human‐like perception, likely due to their fundamentally different sensing mechanisms. This study presents a skin‐inspired artificial mechanoreceptor composed of microfluidic channels filled with NaCl electrolyte and embedded within soft elastomeric membranes. Intrinsic surface chemistry induces a non‐uniform ionic distribution inside the channels. Mechanical stimulation disturbs this distribution, leading to changes in electrical potential. Unlike traditional sensors based on purely electronic transduction, the proposed self‐powered mechanoreceptor operates through ionic interactions similar to those in biological mechanoreceptors. The generated signal exhibits temporal features such as overshoot and undershoot, analogous to neural depolarization and repolarization. Frequency analysis shows a dominant peak near 440 Hz, consistent with the operating range of Pacinian mechanoreceptors. The output potential depends strongly on ionic concentration, with an optimal value around 5 mM NaCl. The proposed mechanoreceptor offers strong potential for improved neural compatibility by ionically modulating the electrical potential in the medium and is expected to provide more realistic tactile perception in future prosthetic limbs.