Underwater Robot Wants To Feel You Up
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Wednesday, 6 of May , 2009 at 2:00 am
This robot is designed to work autonomously deep underwater, where it’s cold and dark and current-y. This sort of situation is understandably stressful for a human operator trying to keep remote control of robotic appendages, but the robot has a bunch of fancy new touch sensors that allow it to grip delicately all by itself. The sensors are minuscule, about half the width of a human hair, and they’re actually printed directly onto the robot’s skin. This technique lets a bunch of sensors be printed next to each other to achieve a very sensitive and high resolution sense of touch.
I’m sure the design for this robot makes perfect sense from a feasibility standpoint, but does it have to look quite so menacing? I just know it’s going to grab me by my tender bits and pluck my eyeballs right out of my skull. And I’m sure it will squish them by just exactly the right amount with its fancy touch sensors. Plorp.
[ Fraunhofer ] VIA [ Eurekalert ]
Leave a comment
Category: Industrial, Research
- Add this post to
- Del.icio.us -
- Digg
No comments yet.