ALBAWABA - Researchers at the University of Texas in Austin have created a first-of-its-kind flexible, electronic skin with nearly the same qualities as human skin, opening up new opportunities for robots to accomplish activities that need a high degree of accuracy and control of pressure.
Current e-skin technologies lack sensing precision when the material expands, according to the researches, who claim that their new invention addresses this significant bottleneck evident in the nascent technology.
Leading the project is Nanshu Lu, a professor in the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, who said that “much like human skin has to stretch and bend to accommodate our movements, so too does e-skin,” adding that “no matter how much our e-skin stretches, the pressure response doesn’t change, and that is a significant achievement.”
E-skin technology detects pressure via contact and tells the associated machine the appropriate force to use, however, when traditional e-skin is stretched, it detects the distortion and generates extra noise, skewing the sensors' capacity to detect pressure, leading the robot to utilize excessive force to grasp something.
Revolutionary e-skin technology developed at University of Texas uses inflatable probes to detect pressure (University of Texas)
The new technology overcomes this issue through the design of inflatable probes and grippers that can alter shape to conduct a range of delicate, touch-based activities. This was tested by using the probes to detect human heartbeat through skin, much like a nurse would do, and the pulse was recorded successfully.
Prof. Lu points out the potential uses for the technology in robots that would provide care for the elderly, noting that if the number of elders exceeds the amount of available caregivers, a worldwide crisis could emerge, stating that “we need to find new ways to take care of people efficiently and also gently, and robots are an important piece of that puzzle.”
In addition to medical uses, care-giving robots might be utilized in catastrophes, as they might look for wounded or trapped individuals in an earthquake or collapsed structures, as an example providing on-the-spot urgent treatment like CPR.
The research team is currently collaborating with experts in the field to build practical applications for the technology, they have also submitted a preliminary patent application for the e-skin technology, and Prof. Lu is willing to work with robotics firms in order to bring it to commercialization.
