Robots That Sense Before They Touch

Intel researchers have developed a sensor for robotic arms that allows the robot to sense an object before actually touching it. For example, a robotic arm is capable of telling the difference between an empty bottle and a bottle filled with water without touching either one. The technology, known as pre-touch, is intended to "improve the ability of robots to grasp objects in unstructured human environments," says Intel research scientist Josh Smith. Pre-touch's electric-field (EF) proximity sensors are electrodes made of copper and aluminum foil. A current is sent to one of the electrodes, which creates a magnetic field and induces a current in the other electrodes. When the robotic hand gets near metal or anything with water in it, the object reduces the induced current, which is detected by the sensors. Special algorithms process the information and instruct the robotic hand to move around the object accordingly. Smith developed similar EF sensors while he was a student at MIT. Those sensors were used to help determine the position of people in a car, information that was used to determine how to deploy airbags during an accident. Smith says his current EF research will now involve developing algorithms capable of handling the complex data that EF sensors produce, particularly when the object or the robot is in motion.   From ACM Technews