In what could be a major advance for both industrial robots and
prosthetic hands, researchers at the USC Viterbi School of
Engineering have developed a specially designed robot that can
outperform humans in identifying a wide range of natural
materials by sensing their textures. The robot has a new type of
tactile sensor built to mimic the human fingertip. It uses
algorithms imitating human strategies to identify textures by
touch. The BioTac tactile robotic sensor is built to mimic the
human fingertip and uses algorithms imitating human strategies
to identify textures by touch. (Source: SynTouch) Built by
Gerald Loeb, professor of biomedical engineering and director of
the USC Medical Device Development Facility, and biomedical
engineering doctoral candidate Jeremy Fishel, the multimodal
BioTac fingertip-shaped sensor is filled with conductive fluid.
Fingerprint-like ridges on its flexible elastomeric "skin" have
a biomimetic size of 0.4mm spacing. When the BioTac slides over
textured surfaces, vibrations ar