Electronic skin senses touch using magnetic hairs
We are making great progress in the world of robotics, intelligent materials, virtual reality and prosthetics, and being able to have real sensations in artificial skin is a key point in this regard.
Sensitive skin is difficult to replicate in artificial versions, but now they have unveiled a type of electronic skin that contains tiny embedded hairs capable of accurately sensing touch and direction of movement.
In this way it is possible to record contact with something, as well as pressure, temperature or even pain. They can be used for people who have lost part of their skin, or to create much more advanced prosthetics, although the idea of touch-sensitive robots is also very advanced.
Researchers from the Chemnitz University of Technology have published in Nature the advances in the development of an electronic skin that contains a new type of sensor that makes it more sensitive to touch. It has tiny hairs lining the skin, magnetic hairs in a stretchy material with bulbous roots that sit below the surface of the electronic skin and move when the hair is touched.
Each root is surrounded by a 3D magnetic sensor, and is capable of tracking the exact position of the root in real time. In this way it is known that the hair has been touched and the direction of said touch.
Magnetic sensors can be easily made in large numbers and folded into boxes to house hair roots, following a process called micro-origami.
If a robot is able to sense the direction of touch and the possibility that something “hurts”, it will be able to warn humans before an accident occurs. And feeling the direction of the touch can help you better find the source of the pain.
