Soft Robotic Hand 'Feels Like Humans'

Scientists have developed a soft robotic hand that can feel its surroundings internally, just as humans, and performs tasks like picking out ripe tomatoes. Most robots achieve grasping and tactile sensing through motorized means, which can b excessively bulky and rigid. Researchers from Cornell University in the US, led by assistant professor Robert Shepherd, showed how stretchable optical waveguides can act as curvature, elongation and force sensors in a soft robotic hand. Most robots today have sensors on the outside if the bodies that detect things form the surface. These sensors are integrated within the body, so they can actually detect forces being transmitted through the thickness of the robot, a lot like we and all organisms do when we feel pain. Optical waveguides have been in use since the 1970s for numerous sensing functions. The team used its prosthesis to perform many tasks, including probing for shape and texture. The hand was able to scan tomatoes and determine, by softness, which was the ripest.