Artificial skin perceptual touch used to make a touch function robot

It was September 12, published in the journal nature · materials, two independent research group of the United States to recently developed different methods that can be perceived slight touch of artificial skin.

New artificial skin end can be used to manufacture artificial limb or robot with touch function.

Both systems can detect less than 1 kPa pressure variation.

So the size of the pressure of a people usually fingers typing or pick up a Paintbrush. Prior to this system can only be detected thousands of Pascal, or only the static induction dozens of Pascal.

Stanford University's famous Chinese chemists Bao zhe South and colleagues use of raw materials is an elastic polymer polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS).

They measure about 6 square centimeters of PDMS, fill in the rubber make the capacitor equipment. When squeezing, the device capacitance changes. The researchers then the PDMS capacitance and organic transistors connected to measure current changes. The results show that the device can clearly feel a green flies or Butterfly landed on the pressure on it.

Although this device is very sensitive, but since there is currently no stretch, so it cannot be applied to artificial limb.

Mr Chol Nam estimates that can be applied to artificial limb of a flexible artificial skin will come out at the end of this year. However, she said, to produce a biological compatibility of artificial skin, there is a long way to go.

Another artificial skin from UC Berkeley's Ali and colleagues have developed.

They are in contact with printing technology, they use grid semiconductor Nanowires to create a very flexible pressure sensitive rubber, its pressure perceptual resistance changes.

In one approx 7 cm square grid, cross-cutting aspect of Nanowires as transistor.

Each transistor as a pixel, you can read the pressure in each location where the current change. As this equipment is mainly made of rubber, so you can bend; more due to the use of a very small inorganic semiconductors, therefore, the device is also very flexible. Scientists bend it into the top of the u-shaped, when only five mm gap, the sensor is still valid.