Robots Could Be Tickled In The Future

Do you think that we take the small things in life for granted? Take for instance, you holding on to an egg without breaking it, or how about closing your eyes and feel the breeze caress your face? Of course, we might think nothing much of those, but pause for a moment and reflect on how robots are. I suppose if they were capable of emotions, then they would certainly want to “kill” (hopefully not literally) to be able to have the sense of touch built-in.

Perhaps all of that might change sometime down the road, courtesy of breakthrough research which offers robots as well as other compatible electronic devices an extraordinarily nuanced sense of touch. The implementation of piezoelectricity in a robot by a team of Georgia Tech researchers led by Zhong Lin Wang could result in a finely tuned electronic sense of touch, which is definitely something that would elevate robots to the next level of their evolution. Surely this is a scary yet exciting thought simultaneously.

Edwin Kee
Categories: Robots
Tags: tactile