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Tactile sensing aims to electronically capture physical attributes of an object, such as stiffness, texture, temperature, structure, or shape, via mechanical contact. It proves indispensable to a variety of engineering tasks and systems, in areas ranging from manufacturing to medicine and autonomous robotics.

Situations of real-world interest frequently involve mechanical contact and sensing between surfaces that are curved, irregular, slippery, or dynamically changing. In such settings, it is highly advantageous for tactile sensors to be able to conform to surfaces of measured objects, or to the instrumented systems themselves. Because contact stresses in realistic settings can vary dynamically, and often present large gradients, it is valuable for tactile sensors to be able to capture soft contacts with high spatial and temporal resolution.

In conclusion, this dissertation confronts many of the most vexing problems arising in the pursuit of skin-like electronic sensors, including fundamental operating principles, structural and functional electronic design, mechanical and electronic modeling, fabrication, and applications to biomedical imaging. The thesis also contributes knowledge needed to enable applications of tactile sensing in medicine, an area that has served as a key source of motivation for this work, and aims to facilitate other applications in areas such as manufacturing, robotics, and consumer electronics.