Smart skin

Smart skin will give robots tactile sensitivity

Sensitive robots

Working out of the Georgia Institute of Technology, a joint US-Chinese team has created a material that may bring considerable benefits to the field of robotics - an artificial skin that has sensitivity akin to that of human skin.

The secret lies in a network of transistors capable of generating independent 'piezotronic' signals.  Each of these tiny transistors have a bundle of some 1,500 nanowires and can detect a change of pressure accurate to around 10 kilopascals - that's similar to what human skin can detect.

Potential applications are many and varied. They will provide robots with an adaptive sense of touch, allowing intricate movements to be applied based on 'tactile sensing'.  As a security measure this technology could be used for multidimensional signature recording where not only the pattern of the signature is detected but also the specific pressure applied to the writing of each letter. DARPA, the US Defence Agency, is interested enough in this to be one of the major sponsors.

This is one of those technologies that on its own seems limited but when partnered with other fields,such as robotics, the possibilities are very exciting indeed.

Links to the 'smart skin' story

Tactile Imaging (GeorgiaTech)

Smart skin hope for touch sensor (BBC)

Smart skin has the same sensitivity as human skin (Wired)

Smart skin allows robots to feel (Escapist)

Piezo-electronic taxel arrays (RedOrbit)

Fancy reading the full article about this technology, published in Science magazine under the catchy title of 'Taxel-Addressable Matrix of Vertical-Nanowire Piezotronic Transistors for Active/Adaptive Tactile Imaging'? (Full  abstract requires subscription for access.)