Georgia Tech researchers have taken one big step towards building a robot will be able to get that jar of mustard from the back of the refrigerator without making an ungodly mess of the place. They’ve developed a “skin” that gives tactile sensitivity to a robot’s whole arm, allowing it to snake its way through obstacles and pick up objects that in the midst of a cluttered environment without disturbing the items surrounding it.
The “skin” is a fabric that can be stretched along the arm of the robot and contains a number of tactile sensors that let the robot know where its arm is. That allows the robot to keep moving towards its goal without the rest of its arm sending debris scattering.
via Geekosystem
