Scientists at the University of Glasgow are developing ‘brainy skin’ — a synthetic hypersensitive skin that may one day be used to make more-responsive prosthetics for amputees, or to build robots with a sense of touch.

Made from silicon-based printed neural transistors and graphene, it reacts like human skin and has its own neurons that respond immediately to touch, rather than having to relay the message to the brain.

The futuristic research is being carried out by Professor Dahiya and his Bendable Electronics and Sensing Technologies team at the university’s School of Engineering.

He has received £1.5 million of funding from the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council to support the latest phase of the project.

Professor Dahiya said: “Human skin is an incredibly complex system, capable of detecting pressure, temperature and texture through an array of neural sensors that carry signals from the skin to the brain.

“This project will harness the technological advances in electronic engineering to mimic some features of human skin, such as softness, bendability and sense of touch.

“It will not just mimic the morphology of the skin but also its functionality.”