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"Humans are able stick their arms into cluttered areas like a refrigerator or reach across a table set for dinner without knocking anything over. Robots aren\u2019t so good at that. In fact, until now, researchers generally design robots to not touch anything except for the object for which they\u2019re reaching.\nHowever, a robotic arm developed by a team lead by Charlie Kemp, associate professor at Georgia Institute of Technology, has sensors that cover its entire \u201Carm,\u201D helping it touch other objects gently, while reaching for a specific item. The technique gives robots a more effective and realistic method for dealing with real-world circumstances, where obstacles and clutter are usually an issue.\nSEE ALSO: 5 Major Advances in Robotic Prosthetics\n\nKemp\u2019s robots have reached through artificial foliage and piles of cinder blocks that search-and-rescue robots might run into.\nIn a particularly apt real-world exercise, Kemp\u2019s team designed a robot arm that assisted a paraplegic. The robot was able to wipe the subject\u2019s face with a cloth and pull a blanket over him (if slowly).\nSEE ALSO: Excellent Idea of the Day: Robonaut Exoskeleton\n\nOne of the things that can make robots terrible personal assistants is that they can\u2019t always deal with the ordinary bumps and irregularities that would go into being around people. But the work with the paraplegic patient, who told observers he felt pretty safe around the machine, shows that it\u2019s possible to teach them that. Coupled with a better sense of touch and training for both robots and people, this kind of work might open the way for more robot assistants for people with physical problems.\nThe team is presenting the research at the International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics in June and published results in the International Journal of Robotics Research.\nPhoto: Trial participant Henry Evans said he was impressed by how the robot's arm \"just wriggles around obstacles.\" Image courtesy of Georgia Institute of Technology"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/04/30/robots-reach-touch/>