A Robotic Arm with a Sense of Touch www.nippon.com

posted by  banzaitokyo | 7 years, 7 months ago in Science & Technology

Humans can pick up soft or small objects with ease, but that is not the case for robots, which have difficulty replicating the delicate movements of the human hand. When they do not know how strong a grip is needed, robots can break things or injure humans.

What robots need is a sense of touch. This is the most challenging of the five senses to quantify and to turn into digital signals. A robot with this sense will be able to adjust its grip according to how the object it grasps feels. If we can build such robots, we will be able to put them to work in closer contact with people.