The forms of communication available now are categorized into the one or three dimensional. One dimensional communication includes metal wires and optical fibers in which the electro-magnetic field is confined in one dimensional medium. Wireless communication based on RF or optical connection emits electro-magnetic field in 3-D space. Now what if we have "two-dimensional communication" in which signals travels from one point to another point freely in elastic two-dimensional space using electromagnetic field confined in 2-D space? In this paper, we describe such a new technology of 2-D communication brings new paradigm to robotics. The methodologies of machine-design, system-integration, sensing, and computing will be drastically changed. We show architecture of the 2-D signal transmission based on relaying packets between communication chips on a thin sheet, the physical structure of the 2-D signal transmission, the protocols of the signal relay, and the results of the basic experiments.

In this paper, we propose a tactile sensing element that communicates through two dimensional conductive skin layers without individual wires. Each tactile element has sensors and signal processors, and it broadcasts coded tactile signals through a couple of conductive layers. Since the conductive layers can be used for both the electrical power supply and the communication, simply sandwiching the chips between the layers completes electrical connection of tactile sensing chips. Since no metal wires exist, the skin is elastic and tough. High-resolution sensor skins can be easily fabricated in various shapes. In addition, because the tactile elements transmit the locally detected stress data with coded signals, we can obtain high-SN-ratio data from a very small sensing element put at a remote location. This paper describes the skin structure, the communication architecture, the structure of the sensing chip, and the results of basic experiments.

Human-friendly robots of new generation will require sensor skin that is soft and covering the whole body. But it would be very difficult to fabricate it with the traditional technology, because placement and wiring of a vast amount of sensor elements on the 3-dimensionally configured robot surface is laborious. We propose a novel method to fabricate such a sensor skin. The skin contains sensor chips which receive the electrical power and transmit the tactile signal without wires. The skin is configured in an arbitrary shape easily, and it is elastic and tough because each sensing element does not need any fragile wires. The principle and the experimental results are described.