e-Skin can help robotic limbs handle fragile objects
Image via University of California, Berkeley
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Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have made a breakthrough in creating a touch-sensitive "skin" for robots. The covering, dubbed e-skin, helps robots gauge how much pressure they're putting on something they're grasping. It makes it possible for the same robotic hand to gently grasp something fragile in one instance, and keep a hold of something heavy in the next. But the e-skin also has important implications for people with prosthetic limbs -- it could restore the sense of touch.
According to Berkeley, giving people with prosthetic limbs the ability to touch again will "require significant advances in the integration of electronic sensors with the human nervous system." But this e-skin is a start.
"The idea is to have a material that functions like the human skin, which means incorporating the ability to feel and touch objects," said Ali Javey, associate professor of electrical engineering and computer sciences and head of the UC Berkeley research team developing the artificial skin.
The group created nanowire "hairs" made from germanium/silicon, and deposited them on a sticky substrate, creating the film that becomes the skin. The process combines two must-haves for the purpose -- a conductive material that can transmit electricity, which is the silicon the nanowires are made of, and a flexible material, thanks to the mesh of wires rather than a solid surface. So far, the researchers have shown that the e-skin has the ability to detect pressure equal to what humans use for daily activities like typing or holding an object.
While a prosthetic limb that incorporates the advances made in this pressure-sensitive material is a long way off, the potential for what it can mean for amputees is very exciting.
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