A type of robot that uses whiskers to touch and distinguish between different surfaces could open new doors in sensor technology, enabling the creation of devices that can navigate in darkness or tight spaces where vision is useless.
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Whisker Robot |
“It’s like walking in a dark room with your arms outstretched so you don’t bump into anything,” said neuroscientist Miriam Fend, who participated in the research at the University of Zurich, Switzerland.
The robot developed by Fend has a diameter of about 8 cm and is equipped with two whiskers that operate alternately. Each whisker is attached to a membrane covered with a microphone. When the whisker sweeps across an object, the membrane deforms, generating a signal that is then amplified and recorded by a computer.
In experiments, the robot mouse explores an enclosed space, feeling around to detect obstacles. When it encounters a soft surface, it is programmed to gently turn away. However, if it touches a hard surface, it will quickly change direction.
As a result, in 3 out of 4 cases, it accurately senses the surface and turns away as programmed.
“Although previous robots have used whiskers to avoid obstacles, follow walls, and distinguish surfaces, Fend’s work is the first to demonstrate that different surfaces can be distinguished at arbitrary angles and distances,” noted Associate Professor Mitra Hartmann at Northwestern University.
“This is an important advancement, as classifying the characteristics of objects based on the angle of contact is a challenging problem,” she added.
T. An (Discovery)
