Thin skin will help robots 'feel'

Japanese researchers have developed a flexible artificial skin that could give robots a humanlike sense of touch.

The team manufactured a type of "skin" capable of sensing pressure and another capable of sensing temperature.

These are supple enough to wrap around robot fingers and relatively cheap to make, the researchers have claimed.

The University of Tokyo team describe their work in the latest issue of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

I'd like to see dense tactile sensors used in combination with camera based object recognition. That seems like the way a toddler does it. I'm sure they would be quite complimentary, one gives you texture and the other gives shape and color, roughly.

Perhaps an example from the wonderful world of fruit would help.

Nectarine:


Peach: