Cambridge University
The new skin can be used in the field of robotics and in the development of prostheses for people who have suffered amputations.
Imagine a robotic skin made of gelatin that allows the robot to feel from a soft touch to the cut of a scalpel. It sounds like science fiction, but it is reality: researchers from Cambridge and UCL universities made the announcement on June 11 in Science Robotics magazine. Created from conductive gelatinInnovation can transform the way robots perceive the world around it.
Unlike traditional solutions that require distinct sensors for each type of stimulus (such as heat, pressure or pain), this new robotic skin integrates All in a single material.
The whole surface acts as a sensor, similar to human skin, capturing signals through More than 860 thousand conductive microcanals. This allows the robot to detect, with a single type of sensor, from the light touch from one finger to deep cuts and temperature changes.
The structure is made with a Hidrogel to Base de gelatine which, besides being elastic and conductive, can be easily shaped in complex forms, such as a human hand. With only 32 electrodes placed on the wrist, the researchers managed to capture more than 1.7 million simultaneous data across the surface of the robotic hand.
Artificial intelligence to teach you how to feel
The tests included light touches, intense heat and even scalpel cuts. These stimuli were used to train Machine Learning models that help the system recognize and classify different types of accuracy contact.
According to researchers, this technology can have applications in areas such as human prosthesesrobotics and automotive industry. Although it does not yet overcome the sensitivity of human skin, scientists believe this is the most advanced solution available today.
