Liquid-Filled Robot Finger More Sensitive to Touch Than a Human's

Liquid-Filled Robot Finger More Sensitive to Touch Than a Human's: A flexible, spongy skin complete with ridges (like a fingerprint) is stretched over a liquid filling. As it slides over a surface, the skin vibrates in ways that are distinctly tied to the texture of the material it is touching. A hydrophone inside the core of the finger picks up these vibrations and uses them to distinguish between materials...

The researchers recreated this way of discerning between exploratory movements via an algorithm that allows the robot to zero in on the best exploratory movements for appraising any material set in front of it at random. The result: when presented with 117 materials gathered from fabric, stationary, and hardware stores, the robot correctly identified them 95 percent of the time using no sensory input but touch.