New E-Skin Lets Robots ‘See’ More Color Than Human Vision
One day, all robots might be able to see in technicolor—but not through their eyes. Instead, they’ll be able to see through their skin.
In a paper published Wednesday in the journal Advanced Materials Technologies, a team of researchers at the University of Glasgow have developed an electronic skin that could allow machines to detect light ranges beyond human eyesight. The e-skin is made of tiny semiconductors on a flexible plastic material, allowing engineers to apply it to most surfaces. The team believes that this has a wide range of applications from robots working in light sensitive environments to even wearables for humans.
"Mechanical arms used for manufacturing in light-sensitive environments, for example, could become capable of detecting when conditions change and the safety or effectiveness of their work is put at risk,” Ravinder Dahiya, an electronics engineer at the University of Glasgow and lead author of the paper, said in a press release.
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