Caltech engineers have created a robotic arm controlled by electrodes placed on an operator’s arm. Equipped with an artificial skin filled with sensors, the robot can transmit tactile information to the human operator.
The sensation of touch gives us a lot of information about objects and makes it easier for us to grab them or interact with them. This is a sense that robots lack, at least until now. The engineers of California Institute of Technology (Caltech) have developed a artificial skin able to detect the pressiontemperature and even toxic products.
This skin, described in the review Science Roboticswas developed as part of a more comprehensive system that allows a human operator to control the movements of a robot and feel what it touches. The skin is made with a hydrogel gelatinous which incorporates sensorswhich makes it softer like human skin.
Presentation of artificial skin. Enable automatic subtitle translation. © Caltech
Printed sensors to detect explosives
The researchers created a structure based on wires of nanoparticles ofargent on which they print the sensors directly, which allows them to more easily test many different configurations. For example, they use graphene imbued with platinum to detect trinitrotoluene (TNT). The artificial skin can even detect viruses thanks to carbon nanotubes on which they added antibody specific.
Of the electrodes printed are placed on the operator’s arm and detect the movements of the muscles to reproduce them on the robotic arm. They trained an artificial intelligence to recognize six different gestures. The operator receives feedback from the robot’s artificial skin in the form of a stimulation electric. The researchers hope that their system will be used in different fields, for example to sense the amount of pesticides spread over a field, finding the source of pollution in a river or even detecting traces explosives on a suspicious bag at an airport or train station.
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