Event-Driven E-Skins Protect Both Robots and Humans

EE Times Current · 8 Jul 2025 · 47m

What this episode covers

Professor Gordon Cheng of the Technical University of Munich explains his development of event-driven e-skin for humanoid robots, using off-the-shelf sensors and neuromorphic communication to enable safe, autonomous physical interaction. He details how hexagonal sensor patches covering the robot's body transmit only change-based events to avoid data overload, allowing the robot to sense proximity, force, temperature, and vibration. The discussion with Dr. Giulia D’Angelo and Professor Ralph Etienne-Cummings explores the distinction between device-level and system-level neuromorphic engineering, the challenges of scaling such technology, and its applications in brain-machine interfaces and prosthetics.

Mentioned

Companies
Technical University of Munich, Johns Hopkins University, Czech Technical University in Prague, Intel, BrainChip, Prophesee
Products
iCub, RP2009

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