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Scientists Develop an Electron...What if a Robot’s hand could sense as humans do? Now, this may turn out to be true in the near future as a team of scientists from Stanford University have created a sensor-based electric glove which has the capacity to give a human-like sense of touch and dexterity to Robotic hands.
According to recent studies, the researchers carried out experiments on the electric glove and found that the sensors inside the gloves were effective enough to allow a robotic hand to touch a delicate berry and handle a Ping-Pong ball without squashing them.
The intensity and direction of pressure inside the glove’s fingertips were measured by the sensors, which mean that the sensors were capable enough to measure the two qualities essential to achieving manual dexterity. The electric gloves copied the mechanism of human skin which produces sensitivity to the hands.
There are three different flexible layers inside the sensors which are embedded in the robotic glove and they work in concert. The top and bottom layers run on electricity.
During the experiment, the scientist laid a grid of electrical layers. The layers were placed on the two facing surfaces, similar to rows in fields and arranged the rows perpendicular to each other. The electrical lines were laid to develop a thick array of tiny sensing pixels. The bottom layer of the sensor was turned like a spinosum. After that, the sensors were placed on the fingers of the rubber glove and then on the hands of the robot.
The main intention behind the experiment was to put sensors directly into a skin like covering on the robotic hands. Currently, the technology could be helpful in robot-assisted surgery, where accurate touch control is essential.