An online supermarket company—Ocado in the UK, has recently displayed a robotic hand that can pick fruits and vegetables!
When an embryo is in the womb(子宫), the very first sense it develops is touch. The sense of touch is also the one that lasts the longest—as we get older and our vision and hearing begin to weaken, touch still remains. Humans use their touch to protect themselves, to create emotional relationships with other people and to experience pleasure. Can you imagine life without it?
The sense of touch comes from a network of nerve endings(神经末梢) and special touch receptors on the surface of the skin. While there are different kinds of touch receptors, they help us judge pressure, texture and vibrations. They are located in our fingertips, palms, soles of our feet, face, lips and tongue.
When we touch something, the mechanoreceptors feel the touch and through a network of nerves send signals to the brain. This informs the brain about the location of the touch, the amount of force used, and the speed at which it was used.
Several different techniques have been tried in the past few years to create such a robotic hand—using three fingers. But this latest design by SoMa copies the human hand. It is made up of flexible materials which grasp the thing based on its size and shape. Then air pressure is used to control the movement of the robotic fingers to pick objects safely and without causing damage.
The next step would be for the robot to judge how ripe the fruits and vegetables are, and apply pressure accordingly. Members of the research team are currently working on adding computerised vision to the robots, so that they can see what they are grasping.
Does all this mean robots can replace people? According to Ocado, they help improve productivity by removing some of the repetitive tasks done by humans.
