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Programmable 'skins' turn any household object into a robot
When you think of a robot, a certain image probably comes to mind. Maybe it's on wheels, maybe it's a dog, but it's probably a sizeable electronic machine built specifically for a purpose. But what if you could create a flexible robot that could have countless uses, and it could take any shape you wanted? That's what researchers at Yale University have created: a programmable robot "skin" that can turn any object into a robot.
Stretchable 'skin' gives robots the sense of touch
Robots show a lot of promise as first responders, but they can't effectively dismantle bombs or perform delicate first aid procedures if they can't feel what they're touching. To remedy that problem, a team of engineers from the University of Washington and UCLA have developed stretchable skin that can cover any part of a robot. The skin can give a machine the power to sense vibrations and shear force, or the unaligned forces that push one part of the body in one direction and another part in the opposite.
