Your next robot might just have skin that can feel.

BeBop Sensors has launched its new RoboSkin line of tactile awareness skin-like coverings for humanoid robots and prosthetics. The fabric-based sensor skin can be molded to any surface, allowing it to be quickly adapted to any robot, with high spatial resolution and sensitivity. It’s part of a growing movement to improve robot skin to make automatons more aware.

“As robots integrate better with humans in the home (helping the elderly, taking over mundane household tasks like washing dishes), they will need more distributed sensing to be safe and to sense their surroundings in cases where vision fails,” Alex Gruebele, who recently completed his Ph.D. in biomimetics and dexterous manipulation at Stanford University, told Lifewire in an email interview. “Tactile sensors have focused primarily on robot fingertips. Manipulation starts with the fingertips, so that’s where you need the richest sensory information.”

The BeBop Sensors RoboSkin design is intended to demonstrate how soft, flexible sensing can be integrated into complex or organic shapes. BeBop said its RoboSkin is "flexible, reliable, and highly patented."