Soon, robots may be able to feel — not emotion, but touch-related sensory information they capture through an “e-Skin” Stanford researchers have developed using an electronic sensor that rivals the sensitivity of human skin.
The e-Skin could be used in a vast array of future applications, including prosthetic limbs, burn victims’ treatment, touch-screen displays such as iPhones and iPads, and medical instruments that need to make controlled incisions. The skin is sensitive enough to detect the landing of a butterfly or small insect, and researchers say it could give robots “feeling.”
Furthermore, bandages could be equipped with the sensors to ensure they are applied with the proper tightness. Sensors could also be incorporated into steering wheels to detect when a drunk or fatigued driver loses his or her grip on the wheel, triggering an alarm to alert the driver or automatically slow down the vehicle, said Benjamin Tee, co-author and graduate student in electrical engineering.
Zhenan Bao, associate professor of chemical engineering, has led the research since the summer of 2005. She has worked on the development of flexible electronics for many years, and the e-Skin project came out of the intention to apply her group’s electronic expertise to robotics.
Her team has patented the technology and their work was published on Sept. 12 in “Nature Materials.”
The e-Skin is composed of a thin, highly flexible layer of rubber sandwiched between two electrically conducting layers. The researchers call their rubber “micro-structured” because it is molded into a grid of tiny pyramids that number between several hundred thousand and 25 million. The grid’s pores fill with polymer when the rubber is compressed, fluctuating the rubber’s ability to hold electrical charge.
Read the full story at the Stanford Daily.
Like The College Fix on Facebook / Follow us on Twitter
Please join the conversation about our stories on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Reddit, MeWe, Rumble, Gab, Minds and Gettr.