ROBOTS can reach people trapped under a collapsed building, fire weapons and even perform brain surgery, but they still struggle to pick a coin up off the ground. That鈥檚 because although robotic hands are remarkably dextrous (see 鈥淕et a grip鈥�), they can鈥檛 鈥渇eel鈥� where one surface ends and another begins.
A new robotic finger developed by Koh Hosoda and colleagues at Osaka University in Japan can distinguish between different materials, such as paper, cork, vinyl or wood, just by touching their surfaces. It does this using sensors to assess the texture and friction of each material.
The finger has been designed to more closely resemble the structure of a human finger, with strain sensors distributed at different depths throughout its silicone 鈥渇lesh鈥�.
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