New electronic skin system gives robots a keener sense of "touch"

Humans need to use touch to accomplish almost all daily tasks, such as picking up a cup of coffee or shaking handsSimilarly, robots need "touch" to better interact with humans, but robots still don't feel objects wella team of researchers at the National University of Singapore report in the new issue of the American journal Science Robotics that they inspired the human sensory nervous system and developed an artificial nervous system called "asynchronously encoded electronic skin" over a year and a halfThe new system enables the electronic skin to be extremely responsive and damage resistantit is understood that the system is a network of sensors that can detect tactile signals like the human sensory nervous systemIt detects more than 1,000 times faster than the human sensory nervous system, can distinguish between different physical contacts in 60 nanoseconds (1 nanosecond equals 1 billionth of a second), and can accurately identify the shape, texture and hardness of objects in 10 millisecondsit is particularly important to enhance the resilience of electronic skin because the electronic skin is often in physical contact with the surrounding environmentUnlike the existing interconnected sensor system in the electronic skin, all sensors in the new system are connected to a common electrical conductor, ensuring that the sensors work independently, so that even if one of the connections is damaged, the electronic skin can continue to workresearchers say the system can be paired with any type of electronic skin and can be used in a variety of purposesSome potential applications include the development of prosthetics to help people with disabilities recover their touch, and robots to perform post-disaster reconstructions.