Scientists develop an artificial skin for robots

A TOUCH-SENSITIVE artificial skin that may one day be used to clothe robots has been developed by scientists.

The thin flexible material is embedded with microscopic wire semiconductors, giving it an ability to "feel".

Researchers in the US tested a small patch of "e-skin" that can detect pressure equivalent to the force used to type on a keyboard or hold an object. The longer-term goal is to develop the skin for human-like robots or bionic prosthetic limbs.

Dr Ali Javey, a member of the University of California at Berkeley team, said: "The idea is to have a material that functions like the human skin, which means incorporating the ability to feel and touch objects.

"Humans generally know how to hold a fragile egg without breaking it. If we ever wanted a robot that could unload the dishes, for instance, we'd want to make sure it doesn't break the wine glasses in the process. But we'd also want the robot to be able to grip a stock pot without dropping it."

Besides being used in robots, the e-skin might one day restore a sense of touch to patients fitted with artificial limbs, he said.

Previous attempts to develop artificial skin have failed because the materials used were either too rigid or poor conductors of electricity.

The report's co-author, Dr Kuniharu Takei, said: "This is the first truly macroscale integration of ordered nanowire materials for a functional system - in this case, an electronic skin.

"It's a technique that can be potentially scaled up. The limit now to the size of the e-skin we developed is the size of the processing tools we are using."

A second US team, from Stanford University in California, writing in the journal Nature, reported on another artificial skin technique using pressure-sensitive capacitors.