Researchers at the University of Southern California have demonstrated that a specially designed robot is capable of outperforming humans in identifying a wide range of natural materials.
The robot - modded by a team at USC's Viterbi School of Engineering - is equipped with a new type of tactile sensor built to mimic the human fingertip.
It also runs an advanced algorithm, allowing the robot to make decisions about how to explore the outside world by imitating human strategies.
Capable of other human sensations, the sensor can discern where and in which direction forces are applied to the fingertip - and even the thermal properties of an object being touched.
Like the human finger, USC's BioTac sensor has a soft, flexible skin over a liquid filling. The skin even boasts fingerprints on its surface, greatly enhancing its sensitivity to vibration.
Indeed, as the finger slides over a textured surface, the skin vibrates in characteristic ways. These vibrations are detected by a hydrophone inside the bone-like core of the finger. The human finger uses similar vibrations to identify textures, but the robot finger is even more sensitive.
