"Sensitive" Skin for Robots

lperdue writes "One of the big problems with making robots more in tune with their environment is the lack of a "skin" with many, many embedded sensors --like we have as humans. Now, New Scientist is reporting that electrical engineers Sigurd Wagner and Stephanie Lacour from Princeton University have developed g a prototype using corrugated gold foil in an elastic matrix that could do the job."

Comments

gold foils are a bit pricey

[aminorex]

I like to use the conductive, compressible
foam used for packing electronic parts.
This stuff is essentially free, and comes
in convenient sheets, suitable for skinning
over your manipulator.

It works like so: The resistance of the foam
changes when it is compressed, so you add
lots and lots of little wires, glued to the
foam with a conductive glue, and monitor
the resistance between pairs. This is a
crude pressure sensor. It's good enough
to modulate the grip energy of a tactile
robot for shaking hands with a human, or
picking up a drinking glass.

For more refined, quality-controlled results,
you would want something a bit more upscale.