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Robots could get 'touchy' with self-powered smart skin

Date:
April 13, 2016
Source:
American Chemical Society
Summary:
Smart synthetic skins have the potential to allow robots to touch and sense what's around them, but keeping them powered up and highly sensitive at low cost has been a challenge. Now scientists report a self-powered, transparent smart skin that is simpler and less costly than many other versions that have been developed.
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Smart synthetic skins have the potential to allow robots to touch and sense what's around them, but keeping them powered up and highly sensitive at low cost has been a challenge. Now scientists report in the journal ACS Nano a self-powered, transparent smart skin that is simpler and less costly than many other versions that have been developed.

Endowing robots and prosthetics with a human-like sense of touch could dramatically advance these technologies. Toward this goal, scientists have come up with various smart skins to layer onto devices. But boosting their sensitivity has involved increasing the numbers of electrodes, depending on the size of the skin. This leads to a rise in costs. Other systems require external batteries and wires to operate, which adds to their bulk. Haixia Zhang and colleagues wanted to find a more practical solution.

The researchers created a smart skin out of ultra-thin plastic films and just four electrodes made from silver nanowires. Other prototypes contain up to 36 electrodes. Additionally, one component harvests mechanical energy -- for example, from the movement of a prosthetic hand's fingers -- and turns it into an electric current. Therefore, the skin wouldn't need an external power source. Testing showed that the skin was highly sensitive. It could "feel" a honeybee as it flew toward and away from the device. It also demonstrated electrical stability, maintaining the same level of output over 30,000 cycles.

The authors acknowledge funding from the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the National High-Tech Research and Development Program of China, the Beijing Science & Technology Project and the Beijing Natural Science Foundation.


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Materials provided by American Chemical Society. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. Mayue Shi, Jinxin Zhang, Haotian Chen, Mengdi Han, Smitha A. Shankaregowda, Zongming Su, Bo Meng, Xiaoliang Cheng, Haixia Zhang. Self-Powered Analogue Smart Skin. ACS Nano, 2016; DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.5b07074

Cite This Page:

American Chemical Society. "Robots could get 'touchy' with self-powered smart skin." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 April 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160413113308.htm>.
American Chemical Society. (2016, April 13). Robots could get 'touchy' with self-powered smart skin. ScienceDaily. Retrieved December 13, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160413113308.htm
American Chemical Society. "Robots could get 'touchy' with self-powered smart skin." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/04/160413113308.htm (accessed December 13, 2024).

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