Monterey.- In these times, the objective of robotics has been to make robots more human by incorporating functions such as artificial muscles for flexible movements and sensors to feel touch.
To make this possible, engineers have developed a “RobotSweater” that will allow better interaction with humans, Interesting Engineering reported.
The Robotics Institute at Carnegie Mellon University developed a machine-woven textile “skin” that can be wrapped around the robot’s body to sense contact and pressure.
“We can use that to make the robot smarter during its interaction with humans,” said Changliu Liu, an assistant professor of robotics.
The scientists investigated the properties of a knitted sweater to create a fabric capable of sensing pressure and contact.
The newly designed fabric is composed of two layers of conductive thread made with metallic fibers to conduct electricity. Between these two layers a lace pattern in the form of a net is inserted.
When pressure is applied to the fabric, or someone touches it, the conductive thread closes a circuit, which sensors detect.
Once the sweater is on, the robot will be able to sense touch, as well as direction and even grip force through touch.
Another advantage of the “RobotSweater” is that, like the thread, it can easily fit on irregular three-dimensional surfaces of the robot’s body.
“Knitting machines can shape yarn into shapes that are not flat, which can be curved or lumpy. That got us thinking that maybe we could make sensors that fit curved or lumpy robots,” said James McCann, an assistant professor whose experience is in the manufacture of textiles.
In this way, the entire body of the robot can be covered and possible collisions can be detected.
This breakthrough could have a significant impact in industrial settings, where robots can help improve the safety of human workers.
According to a statement published by the researchers, the current method for detecting human-robot interaction in industry uses extremely rigid materials that cannot cover the entire body of the robot.
Connecting the wiring and electronics to the soft fabric was one of the challenges the team faced when creating the fabric.
To solve this problem, they wrapped the wires around snaps at the end of each strip of knit fabric.
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