Scientists have developed a low-cost,
durable, highly-sensitive robotic 'skin' that can be added to robotic hands
like a glove, enabling robots to detect information about their surroundings in
a way that's similar to humans. Credit: University of Cambridge
Scientists
have developed a low-cost, durable, highly sensitive robotic "skin"
that can be added to robotic hands like a glove, enabling robots to detect
information about their surroundings in a way that's similar to humans. The results are
reported in the journal Science Robotics.
The researchers, from the University of
Cambridge and University College London (UCL), developed the flexible,
conductive skin, which is easy to fabricate and can be melted down and formed
into a wide range of complex shapes. The technology senses and processes a
range of physical inputs, allowing robots to interact with the physical world
in a more meaningful way.
Unlike other solutions for robotic touch,
which typically work via sensors embedded in small areas and require different
sensors to detect different types of touch, the entirety of the electronic skin
developed by the Cambridge and UCL researchers is a sensor, bringing it closer
to our own sensor system: our skin.
Although the robotic skin is not as sensitive as human skin, it can detect signals from over 860,000 tiny pathways in the material, enabling it to recognize different types of touch and pressure—like the tap of a finger, a hot or cold surface, damage caused by cutting or stabbing, or multiple points being touched at once—in a single material.
Scientists have developed a low-cost, durable,
highly-sensitive robotic 'skin' that can be added to robotic hands like a
glove, enabling robots to detect information about their surroundings in a way
that's similar to humans. Credit: University of Cambridge
The researchers used a combination
of physical tests and machine learning techniques to help the robotic skin
"learn" which of these pathways matter most, so it can sense
different types of contact more efficiently.
In addition to potential future
applications for humanoid robots or human prosthetics where a sense of touch is
vital, the researchers say the robotic skin could be useful in industries as
varied as the automotive sector or disaster relief.
Electronic skins work by converting physical information—like pressure or temperature—into electronic signals. In most cases, different types of sensors are needed for different types of touch—one type of sensor to detect pressure, another for temperature, and so on—which are then embedded into soft, flexible materials. However, the signals from these different sensors can interfere with each other, and the materials are easily damaged.
Scientists have developed a low-cost,
durable, highly-sensitive robotic 'skin' that can be added to robotic hands
like a glove, enabling robots to detect information about their surroundings in
a way that's similar to humans. Credit: University of Cambridge
"Having
different sensors for different types of touch leads to materials that are
complex to make," said lead author Dr. David Hardman from Cambridge's
Department of Engineering. "We wanted to develop a solution that can
detect multiple types of touch at once, but in a single material."
"At the same time, we need
something that's cheap and durable, so that it's suitable for widespread
use," said co-author Dr. Thomas George Thuruthel from UCL.
Their solution uses one type of sensor
that reacts differently to different types of touch, known as multi-modal
sensing. While it's challenging to separate out the cause of each signal,
multi-modal sensing materials are easier to make and more robust.
The researchers melted down a soft,
stretchy and electrically conductive gelatin-based hydrogel, and cast it into
the shape of a human hand. They tested a range of different electrode
configurations to determine which gave them the most useful information about
different types of touch.
From just 32 electrodes placed at the
wrist, they were able to collect over 1.7 million pieces of information over
the whole hand, thanks to the tiny pathways in the conductive material.
The skin was then tested on different
types of touch: the researchers blasted it with a heat gun, pressed it with
their fingers and a robotic arm, gently touched it with their fingers, and even
cut it open with a scalpel. The team then used the data gathered during these
tests to train a machine learning model so the hand would recognize what the
different types of touch meant.
"We're able to squeeze a lot of
information from these materials—they can take thousands of measurements very
quickly," said Hardman, who is a postdoctoral researcher in the lab of
co-author Professor Fumiya Iida. "They're measuring lots of different
things at once, over a large surface area."
"We're not quite at the level where
the robotic skin is as good as human skin, but we think it's better than anything else out
there at the moment," said Thuruthel. "Our method is flexible and
easier to build than traditional sensors, and we're able to calibrate it using human touch for
a range of tasks."
In the future, the researchers are
hoping to improve the durability of the electronic skin, and to carry out
further tests on real-world robotic tasks.
Source: Single-material electronic skin gives robots the human touch
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