Artificial skin designed for underwater robot

A team of researchers has developed an artificial skin for a robot, which can help it feel the difference between objects and living sea creatures. The robot could be used to collect trash from the ocean or for undersea exploration. The artificial skin takes advantage of something called the “magnetoelastic effect.” This means that when an object is pushed or pulled, its magnetic field changes. Scientists from the University of California recently found that the magnetoelastic effect could occur in certain polymers—soft plastic materials. They made the skin from these polymers, which are also waterproof and can function underwater. The polymer skin was attached to a robot arm, which was trained to pick up many objects. These included samples of garbage, like bottle caps or plastic cups, and sea creatures…

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The Week Junior US (Digital) - 1 Issue, Issue 199

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