Scientists have developed artificial skin that's not only extremely adaptive and easy to wear but also replicates the sense of touch as realistically as possible.
It's a significant step forward in new technology that could have a great impact on many industries, from rehabilitation to virtual reality.
New Artificial Skin That's As Real As One Could Get
Scientists from the Reconfigurable Robotics Lab at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne teamed up with Laboratory for Soft Bioelectronic Interfaces to create a soft, flexible artificial skin made of silicone and electrodes.
In a new study published in Soft Robotics, the scientists detailed how their system consisting of soft sensors and actuators allow the artificial skin to adjust and fit to the exact shape of the wearer's wrist. Meanwhile, haptic feedback is provided by pressure and vibration.
It's a system that's extremely adaptive with the sensors constantly measuring the skin's movements and deformation, triggering the haptic feedback to respond in real time.
According to study lead author Harshal Sonar, it's the first time that an entirely soft artificial skin with sensors and actuators integrated has been developed.
"This gives us closed-loop control, which means we can accurately and reliably modulate the vibratory stimulation felt by the user," Sonar explained. "This is ideal for wearable applications, such as for testing a patient's proprioception in medical applications."
How Does It Work?
The newly developed artificial skin features soft pneumatic actuators in a membrane layer, which is inflated and deflated by air. As it is inflated and deflated, the skin vibrates.
On top of the membrane layer is a sensor layer, which has soft electrodes that measure the skin's deformation at all times. The data it collects is sent to the microcontroller, which sends back the sensation to the wearer as a response to his or her movements and environment.
The authors revealed that the artificial skin can be expanded to fit up to four times its original length for up to a million cycles, which makes it useful for a wide variety of real-world applications.
However, the new technology is still undergoing some fine-tuning for now. Scientists are currently conducting tests on users' fingers.
The future looks bright, though, with the authors already looking forward to its application in virtual reality, among others.
"The next step will be to develop a fully wearable prototype for applications in rehabilitation and virtual and augmented reality," Sonar said, adding that the future prototype will also likely be tested in neuroscientific studies. In this field, it could be used to stimulate the human body, while scientists are examining brain activity in magnetic resonance experiments.
