Evolving Robot Soft Skin

Recently, a smart, stretch-able and highly sensitive new software sensor has been introduced, which is expected to become the new skin of robots, his arrival to bring new changes in the appearance of robots and robotic prosthetics and other applications, this is from one of the earliest humanoid robot developers Honda and the University of British Columbia jointly developed a new product.

When this sensor skin is applied to the limb surface of prosthetics or robots, it can provide the robot with touch sensitivity and flexibility, so that the machine can perform tasks that were previously difficult to achieve, such as easily picking up soft fruit, and because the touch characteristics of the software sensor are similar to human skin, Help make interactions between robots and humans safer and more realistic.

The University of British Columbia, known as UBC, is one of Europe's leading institutions in Robotics research, and the UBC team developed the technology in collaboration with Frontier Robotics at the Honda Research Institute. Honda has been innovating in the field of humanoid robots since the 1980s and has developed the famous ASIMO robot, as well as other walking assistance devices and the emerging Honda Avatar robot.

The sensor is made of silicone rubber, a material often used in film special effects to make skin textures, and its unique design allows it to bend and wrinkle like human skin. The sensor uses a weak electric field to sense objects, even at a distance, much like a touch screen. But unlike traditional touch screens, this sensor is very soft and able to detect the force of an object entering and along its surface. This unique combination is necessary to realize robots that interact with humans.

The sensor uses the sum and difference of the signals from the four deformable capacitors to distinguish between the normal and shear forces applied simultaneously. The crosstalk between shear force and normal force is less than 2.5%, and the crosstalk between shear axis is less than 10%. The normal stress and shear stress sensitivity are 0.49 kPa and 0.31 kPa, respectively, and the minimum displacement resolution is 40 μm. In addition, the finger proximity can be detected up to 15 mm.

Ryusuke Ishizaki, one of the lead authors of the study and a principal engineer at Frontier, said: "Dr. Madden's lab at UBC has extensive expertise in the field of flexible sensors, and we are excited to collaborate with them to develop this tactile sensor technology for robots."

The researchers note that the new sensor is relatively simple to manufacture, so it can be easily scaled up to cover large areas and be mass-produced. Dr. Madden emphasized that the continuous development of sensors and smart technology has made robots more powerful and realistic, and people are able to collaborate and interact with them more.

However, software sensors can do much more than that, according to Dr. Madden: "There are 100 times more sensing points on the human skin than our current technology, making it easier for robots to perform more delicate tasks, such as lighting a match or sewing." As sensors get closer to the characteristics of human skin and are also able to detect temperature and damage, robots need to get smarter about understanding which sensors to focus on and how to respond. The development of sensors and artificial intelligence needs to go hand in hand."