Due to the excellent maneuverability and obstacle crossing of legged robots, it is possible for an autonomous legged wall-climbing robots to replace manual inspection of ship exterior panels. However, when the magnetic adsorption legged wall-climbing robot steps on the convex point or convex line of the wall, or even when the robot missteps, the robot is likely to detach from the ferromagnetic wall. Therefore, this paper proposes a tactile sensor for the legged magnetic adsorption wall-climbing robot to detect the magnetic adsorption state and improve the safety of the autonomous crawling of the robot. The tactile sensor mainly comprises a three-dimensional (3D)-printed shell, a tactile slider, and three isometric sensing units, with an optimized geometry. The experiment shows that the triboelectric tactile sensor can monitor the sliding depth of the tactile slider and control the light-emitting device (LED) signal light. In addition, in the demonstration experiment of detecting the adsorption state of the robot’s foot, the triboelectric tactile sensor has strong adaptability to various ferromagnetic wall surfaces. Finally, this study establishes a robot gait control system to verify the feedback control ability of the triboelectric tactile sensor. The results show that the robot equipped with the triboelectric tactile sensor can recognize the dangerous area on the crawling wall and autonomously avoid the risk. Therefore, the proposed triboelectric tactile sensor has great potential in realizing the tactile sensing ability of robots and enhancing the safety and intelligent inspection of ultra-large vessels.

This article investigates circular formation control problems for a group of anonymous mobile robots in the plane, where all robots can converge asymptotically to a predefined circular orbit around a fixed target point without collision, and maintain any desired relative distances from their neighbors. Given the limited resources for communication and computation of robots, a distributed event-triggered method is firstly designed to reduce dependence on resources in multi-robot systems, where the controller’s action is determined by whether the norm of the event-trigger function exceeds zero through continuous sampling. And then, to further minimize communications costs, a self-triggered strategy is proposed, which only uses discrete states sampled and sent by neighboring robots at their event instants. Furthermore, for the two proposed control laws, a Lyapunov functional is constructed, which allows sufficient stability conditions to be obtained on the circular formation for multi-robot systems. And at the same time, the controllers are proved to exclude Zeno behavior. At last, numerical simulation of controlling uniform and non-uniform circular formations by two control methods are conducted. Simulation results show that the designed controller can control all mobile robots to form either a uniform circular formation or a non-uniform circular formation while maintaining any desired relative distances between robots and guaranteeing that there is no collision during the whole evolution. One of the essential features of the proposed control methods is that they reduce the update rates of controllers and the communication frequency between robots. And also, the spatial order of robots is also preserved throughout the evaluation of the system without collision.

The human–machine interface plays an important role in the diversified interactions between humans and machines, especially by swaping information exchange between human and machine operations. Considering the high wearable compatibility and self-powered capability, triboelectric-based interfaces have attracted increasing attention. Herein, this work developed a minimalist and stable interacting patch with the function of sensing and robot controlling based on triboelectric nanogenerator. This robust and wearable patch is composed of several flexible materials, namely polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), nylon, hydrogels electrode, and silicone rubber substrate. A signal-processing circuit was used in this patch to convert the sensor signal into a more stable signal (the deviation within 0.1 V), which provides a more effective method for sensing and robot control in a wireless way. Thus, the device can be used to control the movement of robots in real-time and exhibits a good stable performance. A specific algorithm was used in this patch to convert the 1D serial number into a 2D coordinate system, so that the click of the finger can be converted into a sliding track, so as to achieve the trajectory generation of a robot in a wireless way. It is believed that the device-based human–machine interaction with minimalist design has great potential in applications for contact perception, 2D control, robotics, and wearable electronics.

Implantable electronic tags are crucial for the conservation of marine biodiversity. However, the power supply associated with these tags remains a significant challenge. In this study, an underwater flexible triboelectric nanogenerator (UF-TENG) was proposed to harvest the biomechanical energy from the movements of marine life, ensuring a consistent power source for the implantable devices. The UF-TENG, which is watertight by the protection of a hydrophobic poly(tetrafluoroethylene) film, consists of high stretchable carbon black-silicone as electrode and silicone as a dielectric material. This innovative design enhances the UF-TENG’s adaptability and biocompatibility with marine organisms. The UF-TENG’s performance was rigorously assessed under various conditions. Experimental data highlight a peak output of 14 V, 0.43 μA and 38 nC, with a peak power of 2.9 μW from only one unit. Notably, its performance exhibited minimal degradation even after three weeks, showing its excellent robustness. Furthermore, the UF-TENG is promising in the self-powered sensing of the environmental parameter and the marine life movement. Finally, a continuous power supply of an underwater temperature is achieved by paralleling UF-TENGs. These findings indicate the broad potential of UF-TENG technology in powering implantable electronic tags.

Ship pipelines are the most efficient and cost-effective devices for liquid transportation. However, pipeline leakage can pose a threat to ship operation, human safety, and marine environment, especially for minor or invisible leakage with insufficient monitoring. Herein, we propose a triboelectric liquid leakage sensor (TLLS) based on a liquid-solid triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG), aiming at detecting, locating, and identifying the invisible and minor leakage of the ship pipelines in real time. The proposed device mainly consists of a steel electrode and SiO ₂ /PTFE coating. When the coating contacts and separates from the leakage droplets, it generates electric signals that reflect the information of the droplets, such as their angle, temperature, height, volume, and type. The coating also has self-cleaning, superhydrophobic and wear-resistant properties, making it suitable for environments with vibration, high temperature, and humidity. In addition, the coating exhibits the potential to integrate with the prevailing ship steel structures, thereby enabling the formation of extensive sensor arrays for detecting leakages. From the experimental data analysis, the TLLS can obtain accurate information of minor or invisible leakage droplets. Moreover, an intelligence identification system based on the TLLS arrays and a lightweight artificial neural network is successfully developed. To highlight the stability and scalability of the developed system, real-time liquid droplet detection and identification are performed, showing great potential for ship pipeline monitoring and provides an intelligent method for modern ship management.