A groundbreaking new stretchy electronic skin has been developed that could give robots and other devices the same softness and touch sensitivity as human skin. This innovation opens up new possibilities for tasks that require precision and control of force.
The new stretchable e-skin, created by researchers at The University of Texas at Austin, addresses a major challenge in the field. Unlike existing e-skin technology, this new version maintains sensing accuracy even as the material stretches.
Nanshu Lu, a professor at the Cockrell School of Engineering’s Department of Aerospace Engineering and Engineering Mechanics, led the project and explained, “Just like human skin needs to stretch and bend to accommodate our movements, e-skin also needs to be flexible. With our new e-skin, the pressure response remains consistent no matter how much it stretches, which is a significant advancement.”
This research was recently published in Matter.
Lu envisions the stretchable e-skin as a crucial component in creating robotic hands that can replicate the softness and sensitivity of human touch. This technology could be used in medical applications, where robots could perform tasks like checking a patient’s pulse, providing massages, or assisting with personal care.
The need for robot caregivers is growing as the global population ages and the demand for medical care exceeds supply. Lu stated, “If we face a future with more elderly individuals than available caregivers, it will become a worldwide crisis. We must find innovative ways to care for people efficiently and compassionately, and robots can play a key role in this effort.”
In addition to medical applications, robots equipped with e-skin could be deployed in disaster scenarios to search for and assist injured individuals. For example, they could administer life-saving measures like CPR in emergencies.
E-skin technology senses pressure from contact, allowing machines to adjust their force when interacting with objects or people. However, traditional e-skin loses accuracy when stretched, leading to distorted pressure readings that could result in excessive force being applied by a robot.
Through demonstrations, researchers showed that the stretchable e-skin could be used to create inflatable probes and grippers capable of performing delicate touch-based tasks. These devices accurately captured a person’s pulse, held objects securely without dropping them, and even applied pressure to fragile items like taco shells without causing damage.
The key to this breakthrough is a novel hybrid response pressure sensor developed by Lu and her team. By combining capacitive and resistive responses to pressure, this e-skin technology overcomes the limitations of traditional sensors and materials.
Lu and her collaborators are now exploring potential applications for the stretchable e-skin. They are partnering with experts in robotics to integrate the technology into a robotic arm and have filed a provisional patent application for their innovation. Lu is open to collaborating with robotics companies to bring this technology to market.
Additional authors on the research paper include experts from various departments at The University of Texas at Austin. Their work highlights the interdisciplinary nature of this project and the potential for future developments in the field of e-skin technology.
