Servo - September 2011

www.servomagazine.com/index.php?/magazine/article/september2011_Robytes

The Bioloid robot with 31 hexagonal sensor modules attached to its body. Photo credit: Heddergott/TUM.

Sensitive Skin for Bots? Well ...

When the news piece came in with a headline that read, "Scientists Develop Sensitive Skin for Robots," it sounded like a long-anticipated breakthrough. Sadly, the reality is not quite so exciting, as the "skin" doesn't yet resemble skin, and all we're talking about is a 5 cm2 circuit board with a bunch of sensors on it. But beyond the hype, it's still a noteworthy step in the right direction. Researchers at the Excellence Cluster Cognition for Technical Systems (Co TeSys) department ( www.cotesys.de) of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) have assembled an artificial nerve package that eventually should enable robots "to feel heat or gentle touching on their surfaces." The sensors convey information about temperature, pressure, shear force, and vibration to augment what can be deduced via a bot's standard array of cameras.

Each board sports 15 sensors, including four IR units that detect anything closer than 1 cm, six temperature sensors, and an accelerometer. According to TUM The information is fed to the central processor that enables each module to serve as a data hub for different sensory elements. Eventually, many circuits will be joined in a honeycomb planar structure that will cover appropriate parts of the bot. "We will close the skin and generate a prototype which is completely enclosed with these sensors, and can interact anew with its environment," according to TUM. "Beyond this, these machines will some day be able to incorporate our fundamental neurobiological capabilities and form a self-impression. The robot has moved a step closer to humanity." For a short vid, visit www.youtube.com/watch?v=5CILOcxjkQY.

Art Meets Bots Again

Perhaps the latest example of art imitating machinery imitating life is the prototype robot armpit — a creation of London-based designer Kevin Grennan ( www.kevingrennan.com). Once again illustrating the dangers of mixing fine arts with robotics, Grennan (who is studying for an MA in Design Interactions at the Royal College of Art) expounded, "What should a robot smell like? I have augmented three existing industrial robots with 'sweat glands.' Each uses a specific property of human subconscious behavior in response to a chemical stimulus. The contrast between the physical anti-anthropomorphic nature of the machines and the olfactory anthropomorphism highlights the absurd nature of the trickery at play in all anthropomorphism."

Thank goodness someone finally cleared that up. The website displays diagrams of the three bots, but there is no evidence that they actually exist outside of the creator's mind. But I'm not complaining; I'm just glad he didn't decide to examine olfactory interactions between two canine robots. The site provides a look at several more of his concepts, including "Android Birthday" — a 13 min, 40 sec video in which a human pretending to be a robot pretends to be trying to blow out candles on a birthday cake but is unsuccessful because — after all — robots have no breath.