A robot's sense of touch is 100 times more sensitive than a human's. Free Technical Library News

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A robot's sense of touch is 100 times more sensitive than a human's.

25.09.2014

Scientists from the US have equipped the robot with a new type of touch sensor. Thanks to this, the device was able to grab a USB cable hanging freely in the air, and insert its plug into the USB socket. The new sensor was shown at the International Conference on Smart Robots and Systems, held in Chicago September 14-18.

Robots used in industry can provide high precision when manipulating objects whose shape, size and location are known in advance. But manipulating an object that hangs freely in the air is something unprecedented for a robot, the authors of the development say. This was possible thanks to the use of the GelSight sensor.

As a rule, touch sensors calculate mechanical forces based on mechanical measurements, but GelSight uses optics and pattern recognition algorithms in its work. In other words, the tactile signal is first converted into a visual one, after which the "brain" of the robot processes it.

GelSight is a block of synthetic transparent rubber coated with metallic paint on one side. The rubber deforms under the impact of the object it comes into contact with, and the paint evens out the reflective properties of the materials, thus facilitating accurate optical measurements.

In the latest modification, the sensor is installed in a plastic cube, the sides of which can transmit light of various colors (green, red, blue, white). This light is emitted by LEDs, which are located at the opposite end of the cube. If the rubber layer covering one side of the cube deforms, the light reflects off the metallic paint and is "caught" by a camera that is mounted next to the diodes.

Based on the differences in the intensity of light of different colors, the new algorithm can recreate the three-dimensional structure of depressions and folds on the surface with which the sensor comes into contact. Even a small, low-resolution device mounted on a robot arm has a sensitivity 100 times greater than a human finger (the latter is able to separate one bump from another by touch only if the distance between them does not exceed 1 mm).

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