Researchers at Northwestern University and Israel’s Tel Aviv University have overcome a major barrier to achieving a low-cost solution for advanced robotic touch. The authors argue that the problem that has been lurking in the margins of many papers about touch sensors lies in the robotic skin itself.

In the study, inexpensive silicon rubber composites used to make skin were observed to host an insulating layer on the top and bottom surfaces, which prevented direct electrical contact between the sensing polymer and the monitoring surface electrodes, making accurate and repeatable measurements virtually impossible. With the error eliminated, cheap robotic skins could allow robots to mimic human touch, allowing them to sense an object’s curves and edges, necessary to properly grasp it.

Researchers provide accurate, more reliable method to measure touch reception.

Researchers at Northwestern University and Israel’s Tel Aviv University have discovered a problem with robotic skin, that, once eliminated, could allow robots to better mimic human touch.