For the last couple of days we’ve seen advancements in robotics from the Swiss, first they teach them to share food and resources, then they teach them how to learn from our pathetic failures, and now thanks to Stanford Researchers the robots will be able to feel touch, to sense chemicals, and even absorb solar energy, this technology is so advance that it makes our skin look and feel pathetic, so I guess we can start to learn how to bow to the next robotic overlord.
Zhenan Bao is behind this new advancement, this new skin, that acts more like a stretchable solar cell system that can expand and shrink along two different axes, making it perfect for incorporation into artificial skin for robots, human prosthetic limbs, or even clothing.
Bao has been on the news several times already, last time he made a “skin” it was when he created the highly flexible and durable skin that used an extremely thin polymer layers, the skin was able to “sense” touches thanks to a set of transistors in the skin that allows it to detect current changes. It was so sensitive that it was able to detect the pressure from a house-fly’s feet.
Now, this new most current advancement will mix both of those technologies up, and it will be able to even detect chemicals, he thinks that by mixing in an organic solar cell layer into the skin, future android robots will have the ability to power their robotic bodies from the sun. Or he could also coat pretty much any human joint with the sink and still collect enough solar power to run it’s sensor array so humans can have super touch technology.
Another great implication is for the military, he thinks that variations on the skin could coat cars or military vehicles, and even soldier’s uniforms could act as both bio-sensors and solar power generators. As long as they keep it from “terminators” we should be okay. Now he just needs to figure out how to add this kind of skin to human beings… you can start to feel everything around you… HD-Feeling?
Via: Fast Company
