Robots can be programmed to move a car and even perform some operations. However, when it comes to picking up something that they have not touched before, such as an egg, they often fail. Now, engineers have invented an artificial fingertip (指尖) which breaks that limitation. It enables machines to sense objects as a human fingertip does.
Engineers have been working hard to make robots flexible and sensitive. When researchers from a university began designing an artificial fingertip in 2009, they used human skin as a guide. Their first fingertip was about the size of a coke can. By 2018, 3D printing made it about the size of an adult's big toe, with the multi-layered structure like human skin.
The latest breakthrough is called TacTip. Scientists include artificial nerve networks into the fingertip, which enables a robot to quickly process what it's sensing and react accordingly like a real finger.
"A lot of our sense of touch is decided by our skin," says professor Benjamin, leader of the research team. In our fingertips, nerve endings will deform when the skin touches an object and then sends the signals to the brain about what's happening. Similarly, the nerve networks of TacTip pick up and translate those signals into the fingertip's actions, telling robots to handle objects of all shapes and sizes without programming, according to Benjamin.
Some scientists doubt whether TacTip is only just skin-like. The signals from the artificial and human fingertips are not quite the same, as the signals in real skin are more intense. Other scientists think highly of this breakthrough. "At least it helps clarify how human touch works and is a necessary step to improve robotic touch," says professor Smith, a material scientist.
