Wednesday, May 07, 2014: Indian-origin researcher Dr Ravinder Dahiya, a professor of electronic and nanoscale engineering, along with Professor Duncan Gregory, chair in Inorganic Materials in the School of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow have now ventured on quite an adventure: to make robots go all touchy-feely, that is! They are currently working on a technology to create an ultra-flexible tactile skin for robots that could bring them a step closer to being more human!
The researchers are looking to combine nanotechnology with robotics and develope a printing technique for high-mobility materials such as silicon. Once successful, they will then embed electronics and sensors on a bendable silicon-based surface approximately 50 micrometres thick, or even less. The researchers further plan to cover the robot’s entire body so it can feel and touch throughout rather than just restricting themselves to its hands.
Likewise, Engineered Arts Limited has come up with a new robot that features a dynamic face reflecting varied moods and even responding accurately to expressions of individuals giving it a look. SociBot-Mini is based on a fully integrated LED pico projection technology featuring custom developed optics and is a one-of-its-kind robot that could be employed to perform a number of useful tasks.
SociBot-Mini can find and track faces and also accurately tell an individual’s gender and estimate his/her age. These are achieved through an image processing software called SHORE developed by Fraunhofer IIS and integrated into the robot. The robot makes eye contact without having to be prompted and attends to users’ needs analysing their body language. The SociBot features a HD RGB camera, a fully articulated neck, an IR depth sensor. It sports high quality audio and a public-facing touchscreen interface.
