Recent progress on flexible multimodal sensors : decoupling strategies, fabrication and applications

Abstract

Flexible multimodal sensors have garnered significant attention in research areas such as electronic skin, advanced robotics, and personalized health monitoring due to their ability to leverage the complementary advantages of diverse sensing units, thereby a primary decoupling strategy exploits differences in the fundamental types of signals generated. Nevertheless, flexible multimodal sensors persistently face challenges like signal crosstalk and complex integration processes, which constrain their performance. This review delineates recent advances in flexible multimodal sensor decoupling through fundamental material design guided by physical principles, structural design, and AI-driven signal decoupling architectures. Additionally, we explore the various applications of flexible multimodal sensors, encompassing environmental monitoring, physiological health tracking, human-machine interaction, and robotic perception. Finally, the conclusion, challenges, and future perspectives for next-generation flexible multimodal sensing systems are discussed.