Artificial 'skin' gives robotic hand a sense of touch

       Artificial 'skin' gives robotic hand a sense of touch

  From the University of Houston an organization of scientists has recorded a development in malleable/stretchable material for electronics. This mixture of a silicon based polymer, referred to as PDMS, and small nanowires makes a blend that gives a robotic hand the ability to feel the distinction between hot and cold. This is possible because the combination becomes a solid component and the nano wires are able to move an electric current within the robot's hand. This discovery provides several benefits for a broad field of helpful medical tools.  

Devices such as surgery gloves, imitation skin, and medical implants are examples of the use of this new product. Positive words from the creators: "Our strategy has advantages for simple fabrication, scalable manufacturing, high-density integration, large strain tolerance and low cost," 

Experiments that have been used to test the invention:

• the electronic skin was used to show that the robot hand could sense temp. by testing it on ice cold and very hot water in glasses 

• interpretations of analytical signals from the material and the robotic hand reproduce the signals as Sign Language

"The robotic skin can translate the gesture to readable letters that a person like me can understand and read" 

My Personal Comments:

This topic is very interesting to me personally because the possibility of a robot to have a sense of touch amazes me. Everyday researchers and scientists come closer to making life like robots or android humans which I find very interesting. Giving robots a sense of touch is just the beginning! I can't wait to see what comes next for robotic discoveries