Berlin: Researchers have developed a system combining artificial skin with control algorithms and used it to create the first autonomous humanoid robot with full-body artificial skin.
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The artificial skin developed by Professor Gordon Cheng and his team from Technical University of Munich in Germany, consists of hexagonal cells about the size of a two-euro coin (i.e. about one inch in diameter).
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According to the study published in the journal Proceedings of the IEEE, each is equipped with a microprocessor and sensors to detect contact, acceleration, proximity and temperature.
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Such artificial skin enables robots to perceive their surroundings in much greater detail and with more sensitivity.
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This not only helps them to move safely. It also makes them safer when operating near people and gives them the ability to anticipate and actively avoid accidents.
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According to the study, the biggest obstacle in developing robot skin has always been computing capacity.
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Human skin has around five million receptors. Efforts to implement continuous processing of data from sensors in artificial skin soon run up against limits.
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Previous systems were quickly overloaded with data from just a few hundred sensors.
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To overcome this problem using a neuroengineering approach, researchers do not monitor the skin cells continuously, but rather with an event-based system.
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This reduces the processing effort by up to 90 per cent.
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With the event-based approach, research has now succeeded in applying artificial skin to a human-size autonomous robot not dependent on any external computation.
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The H-1 robot is equipped with 1,260 cells (with more than 13,000 sensors) on its upper body, arms, legs and even the soles of its feet. This gives it a new “bodily sensation”.
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For example, with its sensitive feet, H-1 is able to respond to uneven floor surfaces and even balance on one leg.
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With its special skin, the H-1 can even give a person a hug safely. That is less trivial than it sounds – robots can exert forces that would seriously injure a human being. During a hug, two bodies are touching in many different places.
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“This might not be as important in industrial applications, but in areas such as nursing care, robots must be designed for very close contact with people,” Cheng explained.
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“Our system is designed to work trouble-free and quickly with all kinds of robots,” he said.
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“Now we’re working to create smaller skin cells with the potential to be produced in larger numbers,” he added.
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–IANS
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