Move Over Watson: There's a New 'Sensing' Robot in Town

Remember meeting Watson -- the first non-human contestant on Jeopardy? Watson, with the help of voice recognition, can process questions and deliver correct answers in the blink of an eye. What Watson doesn't have, however, is a sense of touch.  In their quest to shape and perfect artificial intelligence, scientists at Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) have reportedly developed a breakthrough component, that, when applied to a robot's frame, will serve as a sensitive skin that can feel heat and touch.

Small hexagonal plates fashioned in a honeycomb pattern comprise the "skin." So far only one small piece of skin with 15 individual sensors was completed and then applied to a long robotic arm. The arm reportedly reacts to the slightest sense of air or touch.

Daily Mail provides the details:

The centerpiece of the new robotic shell - called the Bioloid Robot - is a 5 sq cm hexagonal plate or circuit board.

Each small circuit board contains four infrared sensors that detect anything closer than 1cm.

Mittendorfer said: 'We thus simulate light touch. This corresponds to our sense of the fine hairs on our skin being gently stroked.'

The robot is equipped with six temperature sensors and an accelerometer. This allows the machine to accurately register the movement of individual limbs and to therefore learn what body parts it has just moved.

For the machine to have detection ability, the signals from the sensors must be processed by a central computer.

We can only guess the next stop for Watson and the "bioloid" will be the development of human emotions...

(H/T: Daily Mail)