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| Researchers are developing artificial skin with hypersensitive skin |
Researchers at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore announced that they have developed an artificial skin that has a superior sense of touch than the human hand.
The artificial leather consists of two soft textile electrodes in a sponge layer impregnated with an ion-sensitive liquid. This group of materials constitutes an electrolytic capacitor that can detect pressure changes or differences in electrical charge between two electrodes with high sensitivity.
The sensitivity of this artificial skin is so high that it can detect objects by getting close to them without touching them, because the ionic layer is able to pick up subtle disturbances caused by nearby objects in the skin's electric field.
The researchers said they tested the skin by wrapping a robotic arm around it and touching various objects through it, and showed that they could distinguish the tissues of different groups of materials and estimate their volume, surface area and density.
A robot's ability to distinguish objects based on their texture is a key feature in the industry, helping robotic arms in laboratories to pack and aggregate various materials with ease. The researchers hope that the invention will find medical applications, as it could help people who have had burns or used prostheses regain their sense of touch. Project officials say their invention still needs further development, but have already begun showing it to companies with working commercial applications to help them track its development.
It should be noted that this is not the first time that artificial skin has been developed: in 2020, a team of Australian scientists developed artificial skin that can feel pain, and a team from Caltech developed skin that can feel pain. The temperature, pressure, and toxicity of the substances involved can be felt.
The main goal of this innovation is currently developing a new generation of touch-screen robots that are capable of doing things that machines cannot do, but experts do not rule out the future development of this technology, making it suitable for human use, including medicine and entertainment examples, applications will include The appropriate elements make players feel like they are interacting in a virtual reality game.