EPFL scientists have developed a soft artificial skin that provides haptic feedback and – thanks to a sophisticated self-sensing mechanism – has the potential to instantaneously adapt to a wearer’s movements. Applications for the new technology range from medical rehabilitation to virtual reality.
Just like our senses of hearing and vision, our sense of touch plays an important role in how we perceive and interact with the world around us. And technology capable of replicating our sense of touch – also known as haptic feedback – can greatly enhance human-computer and human-robot interfaces for applications such as medical rehabilitation and virtual reality.
Scientists at EPFL’s Reconfigurable Robotics Lab (RRL), headed by Jamie Paik, and Laboratory for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces (LSBI), headed by Stéphanie Lacour at the School of Engineering, have teamed up to develop a soft, flexible artificial skin made of silicone and electrodes. Both labs are part of the NCCR Robotics program.
The skin’s system of soft sensors and actuators enable the artificial skin to conform to the exact shape of a wearer’s wrist, for example, and provide haptic feedback in the form of pressure and vibration. Strain sensors continuously measure the skin’s deformation so that the haptic feedback can be adjusted in real time to produce a sense of touch that’s as realistic as possible. The scientists’ work has just been published in Soft Robotics.
“This is the first time we have developed an entirely soft artificial skin where both sensors and actuators are integrated,” says Harshal Sonar, the study’s lead author. “This gives us closed-loop control, which means we can accurately and reliably modulate the vibratory stimulation felt by the user. This is ideal for wearable applications, such as for testing a patient’s proprioception in medical applications.”
Haptics sandwiched between silicone layers
The artificial skin contains soft pneumatic actuators that form a membrane layer which can be inflated by pumping air into it. The actuators can be tuned to varying pressures and frequencies (up to 100 Hz, or 100 impulses per second). The skin vibrates when the membrane layer is inflated and deflated rapidly. A sensor layer sits on top of the membrane layer and contains soft electrodes made of a liquid-solid gallium mixture. These electrodes measure the skin’s deformation continuously and send the data to a microcontroller, which uses this feedback to fine-tune the sensation transmitted to the wearer in response to the wearer’s movements and changes in external factors.
The artificial skin can be stretched up to four times its original length for up to a million cycles. That makes it particularly attractive for a number of real-world applications. For now the scientists have tested it on users’ fingers and are still making improvements to the technology.
“The next step will be to develop a fully wearable prototype for applications in rehabilitation and virtual and augmented reality,” says Sonar. “The prototype will also be tested in neuroscientific studies, where it can be used to stimulate the human body while researchers study dynamic brain activity in magnetic resonance experiments.”
Learn more: Artificial skin could help rehabilitation and enhance virtual reality
The Latest on: Artificial skin
[google_news title=”” keyword=”artificial skin” num_posts=”10″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
via Google News
The Latest on: Artificial skin
- ChatGPT Curated A Skincare Routine For My Oily Skin…on May 13, 2024 at 6:09 am
Curious to test out the abilities of AI, I decided to ask ChatGPT to curate a skincare routine for me. Here's what it had to say ...
- Dermatologists Reveal What Drinking Water Can Do For Your Skinon May 13, 2024 at 4:00 am
The consequences of dehydration may be much more dire than slightly less-than-ideal-looking skin, particularly in the long term.
- Sun safety tips to reduce skin cancer riskon May 13, 2024 at 3:12 am
Titanium dioxide and zinc oxide protect users by blocking the sun’s harmful UV rays, causing them to reflect off the skin. Plus, because they’re minerals and not chemicals, they can reduce the risk of ...
- Beauty Diary: These two Aussie beauty products saved my damaged skinon May 12, 2024 at 2:12 pm
There’s not much my face can’t handle, in fact, I’m fairly confident you could throw a nuclear bomb at it and my skin still wouldn’t react.
- Skin Care Newson May 9, 2024 at 4:59 pm
AI-Based App Can Help Physicians Find Skin Melanoma Mar. 20, 2024 — A mobile app that uses artificial intelligence, AI, to analyze images of suspected skin lesions can diagnose melanoma with ...
- Revolutionary artificial skin gives robots a human touch, transforming care and rescue missionson May 8, 2024 at 3:32 am
Scientists have recently created a revolutionary type of artificial skin that is both flexible and capable of simulating the human sense of touch. This advancement is set to transform the ...
- New stretchable robot skin prevents tactile measurement errorson May 3, 2024 at 8:36 am
Artificial skin by Texan researchers is stretchable but avoids the issue of inaccurate knife bite simulations, offering precise tactile feedback.
- Toxic chemicals from microplastics can be absorbed by the skin, study findson April 26, 2024 at 8:20 am
A new study used 3D human skin-equivalent models to examine how flame retardant additives in microplastics are absorbed by the skin. The findings show that several flame-retardant additives passed ...
- Global Regenerative Artificial Skin Industryon April 25, 2024 at 6:28 am
Global Regenerative Artificial Skin Industry is expected to be valued at US$ 2,185.5 Million in 2022 projected a CAGR of 9.9% By 2032 ...
- Japan cosmetics maker develops tech for spray-on ‘artificial skin’on April 11, 2024 at 5:00 pm
Tokyo-based cosmetics maker Kao Corp. has developed technology to create spray-on “artificial skin” that could be used to conceal moles and other facial blemishes. It said the Fine Fiber ...
via Bing News