E-skin creation will let robots feel the world like humans

The 1mm layer of silicone embedded with wires and detectors could allow robots to experience their physical place in the world. Photo / 123RF

Flexible electronic skin that would allow robots to touch and feel the world as humans and animals do has been invented by scientists.

The stretchy e-skin has been hailed as a “step change” in soft robotics, which could be used to create sensitive surgical tools to assist with operations, and to make prosthetics or devices to explore hazardous environments.

The 1mm layer of silicone embedded with wires and detectors could allow robots to experience their physical place in the world.

The team from Edinburgh University tested the skin by fitting it to a soft robot arm and found that the technology was able to sense a range of complex bending, stretching and twisting movements across every part of the device.

Dr Yunjie Yang, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering, who led the study, said: “The perceptive senses endowed to robotic devices by this new technology are similar to those of people and animals.”

This new level of physical self-awareness represents a step change in the sensing capabilities of soft robots.”

Unlike traditional rigid robots, which have a set range of movements, soft robots are highly flexible and deformable, which has posed a problem of how they can carry out precise tasks and interact safely with people.

Researchers, who published details of their breakthrough in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence said the material was easy to make and scale up and could either be built into a robot’s design or applied as an external layer.

It can also be fitted to any shape without needing to program in the dimensions, the team said.

Study co-leader Dr Francesco Giorgio-Serchi, also of Edinburgh’s School of Engineering, said: “The technology could be applied to various soft robots to enable them to accurately perceive their own shape and movements.

”Ultimately, that means we are now closer to making some of the most exciting ideas in soft robotics a reality.”