A team at Stanford University has invented a multilayered, self-healing synthetic electronic skin that can recognize and rearrange itself when injured, allowing the skin to continue functioning while the healing process takes place, New Atlas reported on June 4. The new skin mimics real skin, allowing robots to feel like humans.
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| Illustration of robot skin. (Photo: Devrimb/iStock). |
“We believe we have demonstrated for the first time the operation of a multilayered thin-film sensor that spontaneously reassembles during the healing process. This is an important step toward mimicking human skin, which is multilayered and precisely reassembles during wound healing,” said Christopher B. Cooper, a graduate student at Stanford University and co-author of the study.
The new material can sense changes in the surrounding thermal, mechanical, or electrical environment, and even detect pressure. “The electronic skin is soft and stretchy. But if you puncture it, cut it, or slice it, each layer selectively heals itself to restore overall function. This is just like real skin,” said Sam Root, co-author of the study.
The electronic skin can heal itself in just 24 hours when heated to 70 degrees Celsius, or in about a week at room temperature. "Combining magnetic guidance and an inductive heating system, we can create soft robots that can change shape and sense their deformation as needed," said Renee Zhao, co-author of the study.
The team plans to stack multiple thin skin layers with different capabilities, for example, one layer that can sense temperature changes and another that can sense pressure. This would bring the electronic skin closer and closer to multidimensional real skin.
According to khoahoc.tv
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