GelSight Gives Robots a Sense of Touch

Sep-19-14 By taking advantage of an existing material called GelSight, researchers have created a fingertip sensor able to give robots a sense of touch.

The original GelSight material is made up of transparent, synthetic rubber with a coating of metal paint on one side. Pressing the rubber against an object will cause it change shape, while the metallic paint evens out any reflected light from the object and allows more precise optical measurement.

In the new touch sensor, the gel is mounted in a plastic cube with only the painted side exposed. The four walls of the cube next to the sensor each conduct a different color of light emitted by LEDs at the opposite end, and deforming the gel will cause the light to reflect off the metallic paint for capture by a camera. By analyzing the different intensities of the light using a specially-created algorithm, the team is able to determine the structure of the object.The robot sensor version of the material is not as sensitive as the original version, which could map out a surface on the microscale, but it is small enough to fit on a robot's fingertip and fast enough to process the tactile data in real-time to provide instant feedback.

More Info about this Invention:

[GIZMODO.COM]
[NEWSOFFICE.MIT.EDU]

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