New Robotic Skin Lets Robots Feel Pain — A Major Leap in AI Sensory Tech!
Scientists have developed a new type of electronic skin that could help robots feel — from a gentle touch to a sharp slice.
Made from a soft, gelatin-based, electrically conductive material, this skin can be molded into shapes — like a human hand — and equipped with electrodes to detect signals from over 860,000 pathways. That allows it to recognize different sensations like pressure, temperature, and even damage.
To test it, researchers put the synthetic skin through its paces: heating it, poking it, and yes — cutting it open. All very scientific, but not exactly gentle.
They collected over 1.7 million pieces of data and used it to train a machine learning model that could help robots identify the type and intensity of touch they’re experiencing.
Unlike traditional systems, which need different sensors for each sensation, this skin uses a single “multi-modal” sensor — making it simpler, tougher, and more cost-effective. Ideal for humanoid robots, prosthetics, and even disaster response tech.
As UCL’s Dr. Thomas George Thuruthel puts it: it’s not quite human skin yet, but it’s the most capable robotic skin developed so far — and it’s getting smarter with every poke.
And that’s your robot news update for today!
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