Biomimetic Temperature-Sensing Artificial Skin Developed

A new heat-sensing film has been developed that can detect when warm-bodies are nearby, just like how snakes hunt for warm-blooded prey.

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The film is transparent and flexible, and made with low-cost plant material used in setting jam called pectin. Detecting the temperature is made possible through the flow of ions rather than electrons, which is how snakes detect heat. This moves away from conventional electronics these electrons, where we are now engaging in biomimicry to copy the biological functionality and mechanisms.

This technology can eventually augment interactions between robotics and humans along with the environment they interact with, as well as improve prosthetic limb bioengineering. Existing flexible sensors can have large degrees of responsivity but with a narrow temperature range. However, the new pectin films mimic the sensory mechanism of the pit viper membranes, and match their performance of temperature sensing.

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The new film detects temperature changes as small as 10mK in a temperature range of 45K. This makes it twice as sensitive as human skin and can detect a warm body the size of a rabbit from 3 feet away.

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Applying this type of technology to machines could enable them to have 360° thermal sensing so that they can better navigate crowds of people without hitting anyone, or help in search and rescue efforts to locate people in natural disasters, or other emergencies. Even as a robot servant, being able to detect if a coffee or tea is too hot is beneficial to know before handing it over to a human who might get burned.

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The future development of AI will take more of an interest in being able to integrate robotics with an artificial intelligence that's able to learn and be shaped by its senses of the environment. Being able to sense living beings is an important part of that development. The more accurate the sensing technology, the more accurate the picture the world will the AI be able to build.

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As mentioned before, prosthetics can take advantage of this so it's not only the robotics that can use artificial skin. Using pectin is convenient to apply more intricate coating to objects. It can easily be cast into a mold and dipped into calcium chloride which makes the pectin sensitive to heat changes.

Leade researcher, Raffaele Di Giacomo at ETH Zurich in Switzerland, said they are developing better algorithms to map the temperature across changing surface areas like body parts. The film could also be sprayed or dip coated like in the TV series Westworld to give any shaped object the capability for temperature sensing.

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The challenge will be to combine the flexible film into a multipurpose artificial skin that also has flexible and rigid components. Wearable electronic and papertronics have been making strides in the development of flexible material that can withstand repeated bends and retain its functionality.

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References:

• Robot skin senses warm bodies like a snake locating nearby prey
• Biomimetic temperature sensing layer for artificial skins

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@krnel
2017-01-21, 10:02am