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Engineers at Queen Mary University of London have built a new color-changing tactile sensor, which allows robots to "see" and touch in real-time. The novel idea was invented by Giacomo Sasso, a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Engineering and Materials Science at Queen Mary University of London, and it works by transforming invisible forces into dynamic color patterns. This enables high-resolution maps of contact, strain and pressure to emerge instantly.
The study is published in the journal Science Advances.
When pressure is applied to a soft sensing surface, the material produces spatially varying structural colors that can be captured immediately using a standard camera, removing the need for complex reconstruction algorithms.
This technology enables the development of a robotic gripper assembling microscale components with the delicacy required in precision manufacturing, where every subtle variation in force becomes visible in real time. It can also have an impact on health care, where an external prosthetic (artificial limb) can gain a richer sense of touch during delicate daily or clinical tasks.
The study is published in the journal Science Advances.
When pressure is applied to a soft sensing surface, the material produces spatially varying structural colors that can be captured immediately using a standard camera, removing the need for complex reconstruction algorithms.
This technology enables the development of a robotic gripper assembling microscale components with the delicacy required in precision manufacturing, where every subtle variation in force becomes visible in real time. It can also have an impact on health care, where an external prosthetic (artificial limb) can gain a richer sense of touch during delicate daily or clinical tasks.
