More flexible and soft materials are required to create so-called "soft robots" moving like animals.
A research team at Seoul National University has developed a skin-like electronic system capable of wirelessly activating soft robots through a simple lamination process.
The fingers linked to the electronic skin, or e-skin, system are bent and stretched, smoothly moving like those of real humans.
One part of the soft and lightweight e-skin pair, which is thinner than one millimeter, works for input sensing at the human side, with the other for activating the soft robots.
The e-skin contains a number of chips which work on wireless signals.
Even pressing and crumpling the e-skin do not adversely affect its operations.
[Hong Yong-Taek, professor, dept. of electrical and computer eng.]
"Our team has used communication chips and antennas which are made as tiny as possible to create the system. Although many chips are embedded in the system, they are linked with each other by elastic electrodes enabling the system to normally work regardless of any external impact."
The e-skin also features the spatially fragmented circuit configuration with a slew of miniature IC components. So it can be stretched and conformed onto the dynamic surface like soft robots and other flexible wearable devices.
Owing to such new materials' development, soft robots, which are perfectly suited for squeezing into the tight spaces in search-and-rescue operations after a disaster or various exploration works, are expected to evolve fast.
▶ 24시간 실시간 뉴스 생방송 보기
▶오늘 나의 운세는?
[저작권자(c) YTN & YTN PLUS 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]
이 기사의 카테고리는 언론사의 분류를 따릅니다.
기사가 속한 카테고리는 언론사가 분류합니다.
언론사는 한 기사를 두 개 이상의 카테고리로 분류할 수 있습니다.
언론사는 한 기사를 두 개 이상의 카테고리로 분류할 수 있습니다.
