Smart foam and artificial intelligence could help robots know if they're injured
This foam creation can figure out what's happening to it.
By Rob Verger November 28, 2018
Light fibers in the silicone foam allow an AI system to detect how it's being manipulated.
Cornell University
If you fall hard and break your arm, your body will let you know with crackling hot speed that something is wrong. Robots, though, don’t have neurons, so need a method to know what’s going on with their artificial bodies.
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Consider a future where a robot operates autonomously, but an appendage becomes injured, says Robert Shepherd, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at Cornell University. “It’s going to continue moving its limb and thinking its hand or foot is going to be in one position, when it’s actually going to be in a different position,†he says. “We need skins, or internal neural-like sensors, to communicate this information three-dimensionally and continuously, to the robot’s controller.â€
https://www.popsci.com/self-sensing-foam
