Throughout the world, various experiments are demonstrating that an artificial epidermis with properties similar to the human one is feasible. Not in a very short time
It can be considered the largest organ in our body, a formidable defensive system at the same time able to perform important functions also and above all on an emotional, relational and psychic level. Human skin is soft and supple and has millions of nerve endings that sense warmth and touch. Due to its complexity, being able to reproduce an electronic version of it for forty years has been one of the most demanding challenges of bionicsthe science that studies the sensory and motor functions of living organisms to reproduce or enhance them with electronic or other devices.
Scientific studies
On a scientific level, however, something is moving as evidenced by a series of studies recently published by international research groups. Among these, the Neuro-Robotic Touch Lab of the Biorobotics Institute of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, coordinated by professor Calogero Oddo. Together with the Italian Institute of Technology, the Sapienza University of Rome, Campus Bio-Medico of Rome and C Foscari of Venice, and with the Artes 4.0 competence center, a study on the functioning of an artificial skin has been published in Nature Machine Intelligence. it emulates a family of human skin corpuscles, the receptors called Ruffini corpuscles.
The wiring problem
With this innovative artificial touch technology we have demonstrated the ability to code over a large area with complex geometry, two fundamental properties and characteristics of human tactile perception: the location of the contact point and the intensity of the force with which a robot interacts with the environment, explains Oddo. The skin, in practice, consists of a layer of soft polymer in which they have been inserted particular photonic sensors (Bragg lattice). We have found a huge opportunity in photonic sensors, because solve a pressing problem in robotics than that of wiring. The electrical signal must have a dipole to be generated, that is, it must have a forward wire and a return wire. In a robot, however, the more wires there are, the more hindering they are, he adds.
Artificial intelligence algorithms
In the Italian model of e-skin, the interpretation of the signals transmitted by the sensors also takes place through artificial intelligence algorithms. I study a first step, albeit a promising one. Still far from the emulation of human skin. Suffice it to say that in the skin of one hand alone we have 17 thousand sensors – says Oddo -. In our biomimetic skin we have integrated 16. We already have another prototype with 21 sensors and the technology we have developed would allow us to reach a few hundred receptors without much effort. Currently, however, the state of the art is distant in terms of overall density and skill.
A coating that can also detect dangerous chemicals
But the research continues. Wei Gao, biomedical engineer at the California Institute of Technology, decided to try combining tactile and temperature sensors with those capable of detecting chemicals. In the laboratory, an ink made of nanomaterials formulated to detect a specific chemical substance was created and thus capable of highlighting the presence of explosives, nerve agents and even viruses such as Sars-CoV-2. The resulting e-skin looks like a clear patch with embedded metallic designs on surface. His team’s work was published in Science Robotics.
Neural transitors
The state also as well as that of the research group coordinated by Ravinder Dahiya, Professor of Electronics and Nanoengineering and leader of the Bendable Electronics and Sensing Technologies group at the University of Glasgow. Dahiya has developed a touch sensor that uses tiny neural transistors
devices that control the flow of electricity to and from other electronic components, to help the robotic skin hear and learn. The pressure on the transistors in the skin causes a change in the electric current, which also makes the robot feel the pressure. Over time, the robot can adapt its responses to the amount of pressure detected.
More sensitive material than the tip of a human finger
Another study, published in Advanced Materials Technologies, that of Anna Maria Coclite, professor at the Institute of Solid State Physics, Graz University of Technology (Austria). For nearly six years, her team has been working on developing a smart skin. With 2,000 individual sensors per square millimeter, the hybrid material made (an intelligent polymer in the form of a hydrogel inside and a piezoelectric zinc oxide shell) even more sensitive than the tip of a human finger.
October 5, 2022 (change October 5, 2022 | 14:16)
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