New robotic skin reacts to touch

Using Intel's neuromorphic chip, scientists from the National University of Singapore (NUS) have developed

artificial skin that allows robotsdetect touch a thousand times faster than the human sensory system. It is also capable of determining the shape, texture and hardness of objects ten times faster than analogues. The researchers believe their development could improve human-robot interaction, improving aspects such as robotic surgery or patient care.

To prove its effectiveness, the team from NUSfirst taught a robot arm equipped with artificial leather to read Braille. The robotic arm then transmitted tactile data and translated it. The accuracy was 92%, the device used 20 times less energy than analogues.

Scientists have created a rubber-like substitute for human tissue

Scientists went even further and combined tactile andvisual data. They trained the hand to classify objects using both artificial skin and a camera. They sent the data to the processor and proved that combining event-based vision and touch using a spiked neural network made the system 10% more accurate than using visual data alone.

They also discovered that the device processedsensor data is 21% faster than the best processor, while consuming 45 times less power. The researchers presented their results in the scientific journal Robotics: Science and Systems.

See also:

— Look at the huge “wall” of hundreds of thousands of galaxies behind the Milky Way

— Comet NEOWISE is visible in Russia. Where to see it, where to look and how to take a photo

— How T cells formed new immunity against COVID-19 and changed statistics