Dual-mode temperature sensor based on ferroelectric Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3 materials for robotic tactile perception

Temperature perception can allow robots to acquire rich information regarding their surroundings to improve the accuracy of both object manipulation and object recognition. However, existing robotic temperature perception systems mainly depend on thermoresistive effect, suffering from singular functionality and high energy consumption. Here, we demonstrate a ferroelectric Bi0.5Na0.5TiO3-based dual-mode temperature sensor for robotic temperature perception. The dual-mode temperature sensor can operate in a passive mode to perceive temperature variations by generating pyroelectric signals, and work in an active mode to detect static temperatures by producing pyro-photoelectric signals. Equipped with the dual-mode temperature sensor, a robot hand can perceive multi-dimensional temperature information and assess the thermal conductivity of materials, allowing identification of different materials in real-time with a high accuracy of 97.2 %. By combining passive and active temperature perception, the proposed dual-mode temperature sensor therefore holds significant potential for future robotic perception and manipulation.