The BioRobotics Institute of Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies presented its artificial skin at IEEE Sensors 2022, held in Dallas, TX (30/10-02/11). A one-page paper has been accepted for a Live Demo of the sensing skin during the conference. Mariangela Filosa, PhD student at the Neuro-Robotic Touch Lab headed by Professor Calogero Maria Oddo, showed how it works.
An optical fiber, embedding multiple Fiber Bragg Grating sensors, is integrated in a human forearm-like polymeric substrate. Given the sensitivity to deformations of these sensors, the tactile stimuli over the skin surface can be recognized. A novel neuromorphic approach based on the Izhikevich’s neural model has been implemented for both localizing the touch event and retrieving its intensity. The applications of such a technology are mainly related to the collaborative robotics scenario. Providing robots with artificial skin patches may enable the safe human-machine interaction in several daily life and work tasks.
