Model robotic hand with artificial mechanoreceptorsBAO RESEARCH GROUP, STANFORD UNIVERSITYResearchers have developed a new type of artificial skin that could pave the way for responsive prosthetics. The flexible, carbon nanotube–laced polymer detects pressure and translates the sensation into pulses of electricity that can be interpreted by the mammalian nervous system, according to the in vitro mouse study published last week (October 15) in Science.
“Previously, with plastic material, we and others in the field have been able to make sensitive touch sensors, but the electrical signal that comes out from the sensor is not the right format for the brain to be able to interpret it,” study coauthor Zhenan Bao, a chemical engineer at Stanford University, told BBC News. “Our sensor is now coupled with a printed, simple electronic circuit. That circuit allows our sensor to generate electrical pulses that can communicate with the brain. We see this as the first step towards using plastic materials for artificial skin on prosthetic limbs.”
Bao and her colleagues demonstrated that the sensors could relay pressure signals to the mammalian nervous system by linking them to a blue LED light that in ...
