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Flexible Sensors Make Robot Skin
Roland Piquepaille writes "In recent years, lots of efforts have been made to give robots the ability to hear and see. But what about the sense of touch? Unlike us, robots don't have sensitive skin. But this is about to change. By using organic, or plastic, field-effect transistors as pressure sensors deposited on a flexible material, researchers at the University of Tokyo have created an artificial skin which will give robots the sense of touch. The prototype has a density of 16 sensors per square centimeter, far from the 1,500 of our fingertips. When this density increases and when the problem of the reliability of this kind of transistors is solved, the researchers say this artificial skin will also be used for car seats or gym carpets. Expect to see them in four or five years. More details and a picture of a robotic hand using organic transistors as pressure sensors."
More real realdoll.
*big smile*
Oh yeah
I haven't read the article yet, but my first thought when I read the blurb was whether or not this would have applications for prosthetics?
One of the most difficult parts of rehabilitation for amputees, even with the most expensive and advanced prosthesis, is that the most sensitivity available nowadays is a highly generalied "touching something/not touching something" or a translation of general amounts of pressure (and thats only on the most advanced: most models have no sensors at all). If we could provide amputees with limbs that felt, albeit in a much reduced fashion, many behaviors that require positive feedback (i.e. to be able to adjust your movements based on what you feel in that limb) could become accesible for the disabled.
"Stumble before you crawl"
KITT: "You know, Mike, we need to talk about how you're doing on your diet."
tasks(723) drafts(105) languages(484) examples(29106)
"Look at yourself, standing there, cradling the new flesh I've given you. If it means nothing to you, why protect it?"
"I... I am simply imitating the behavior of humans."
"You're becoming more human all the time. . .Now you're learning how to lie."
"My programming was not designed to process these sensations."
"Then tear the skin from your limb as you would a defective circuit...Go ahead...! We won't stop you! Do it! Don't be tempted by flesh!"
The only acceptable defense of scientific results is to say that they were the product of the Scientific Method.
Make the inflatable dolls play audio clips when certain sensors are touched.
My parents would be so proud.
he just plaigarises other peoples content and sells it on his blog
but if you add
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to your hosts file, he and his revenue stream disappears !
So they'll save lots of money on aftershave and electric razors.
All hail our new cleanshaven robot masters.
Everybody complaining about Slashdot becoming Piquepaille's personal soapbox for plagiarisim seems to get instantly modded down. Is he a pseudonym for one of the Slashdot editors or something?
Anyway, what is the robot ability up to now?
* Has skin
* Eats flies
* Can transform into other robots
* Walks on water
It sounds like the plans are coming together nicely for overlord robots.
Oh great, one more thing for Marvin to complain about.
I think you ought to know I'm feeling very depressed, and my leg hurts too.
Mom: Joey! Stop bouncing around in your seat! .... Please don't stop...
Joey: But Maaa!
Back Seat:
welcome our new golden skinned robotic overlords.
Seriously, that picture kinda creeps me out.
Maybe we DID take the blue pill. You wouldn't remember anyway.
how does one overcome the sensor-sensation gap?
In the case of a sex android one does not even bother trying, as it's only the sensations produced in the human componant that matter.
All the android has be able to do is adeptly fake it, making it more of an android wife than an android girlfriend.
KFG
I started a Masters degree on this issue in the 1980's and it's sad to see the same *wrong* approach to touch still being applied if the end use is a robotic hand/finger. At the time MIT was doing work on this, as were a few other places, all with the wrong approach. Here's the problem:
It's not the sensors or the density or how long they last or their accuracy or anything like that, even though these are real problems. The big killer problem is wiring. You get all these signals and at some point you need to get the wiring over joints that have to bend a real lot. And the more sensors you have the wires your typically going to have. Eventually you end up with bundles of wires and the simple fact is bundles of wires do not like being bent repeatedly, apart from which fingers need to be skinny to be useful and this is at odds with fat bundles of wires.
One solution however is physically simple and was presented at a National robotics conference in Australia in 1990. In summary I proposed and had made a working 2D slice of finger that used only 4 sensors. A 3D finger tip would require about 9 sensors, and by finger tip I mean measuring the major contact, magnitude and direction anywhere beyond the joint. The method was based on normal engineering and had the 4 sensors buried into a compliant skin. An external force caused a reading on all 4 strain gauges. From this small amount of data a PC worked out the magnitude, position and direction of the applied force using data collected from earlier testing. As a 2D finger slice it could successfully follow an edge when attached to a robot arm. I can scan and email the paper (this was pre net days) if any researchers want to extend this work and come up with practical robotic fingers. Email me.
Another solution is to put the smarts into the skin so only a "summary" signal needs to go back through the various joints. This couldn't be done in the 80's but could be now?
It should be feasible to make integrated silicon strain gauge/amplifier/interface chips, embed them in a flexible printed circuit, and laminate them into a skin-like laminate with appropriate tough, soft, and hard layers. But the processes involved are all high-volume ones - it's hard to do this economically in small volume. And there's no market for a process that turns out big rolls of this stuff.
There's a lot of stuff in robotics that's like that. Linear motors and laser scanners both cost about 20x what they should. because the volume is tiny. Even basic servomotos and servo amps cost 5x as much as they should, based on parts cost.
It's getting better, though. More and more parts needed in robotics are becoming off the shelf. I run a DARPA Grand Challenge team, and over the last year, many of the components you need for that have become far more available.
After decades of research, there is now the technology to defeat those wall clinging, ceiling hiding, floor light-footing ninjas!(and web slingers, kung fu masters, ballerinas, etc).
Just apply the new "feel it" intelligent surface film to every surface inside and outside of your home!
Know instantly by pattern recognition and fuzzy logic, when your loved one is cheating on you and know exactly on what table, floor, wall, or patio! You will know the exact time(s) and how many times your loved one has gotton the good vibration from your neighbor, your cook, your best friend... all this data can then be converted to full motion, surround sound video footage for personal review, use in court, and on a variety of daytime talk shows. (Video footage generation available when using "Feel It" intelligent films with "See It" intelligent films. Please consult your local informational technology contractor for proper installation procedures!)
Know when that den of roaches comes out for their nightly snack attack on your pet's food and your early morning english muffins!
Know when expensive vat grown ninjas are clamboring into your home to assasinate you for pissing off the wrong multi-national artificial intelligence!
All this can be yours if you are willing to apply the new "feel it" intelligent surface sheets to each and every possible surface in your home.
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Winged Power Photography
I'm a med student - I had to respond to this one. There are 6 types of tactile receptors, of which nerve endings attached to hairs are one. Hairs provide basic information about movement - the wind or your clothes moving past your skin etc.
The tips of your fingers are hairless. That's obvious - look at them under a magnifying glass or microscope if you have one. Fine touch sensation is provided by Tactile Discs and Tactile Corpuscles located in the ("live") skin of the dermis. The skin is not made exclusively of "dead" cells, but of many layers, and the ("dead") epidermis at the surface is quite capable of transmitting movement down to these cells.
You can check all of this out if you want.
People have hair on their heads mainly for insulation (get a crew cut in the middle of winter if you want to prove this!) although I agree that hair on the head has a limited use in avoiding collisions. I suspect that subjective loss of sensation in the face after shaving is due to the trauma of having run a blade over your skin, and the stinging sensation from the damage to hair follicles.