CRI NEWS
New Skin Makes Robot Sensitive

2004-7-2 20:53:21 CRIENGLISH.com
Scientists in Japan are devising an electronic skin that could give robots a sensitive touch, just like human beings.

Scientists in Japan are devising an electronic skin that could give robots a sensitive touch, just like human beings.
The skin is made from a sheet of rubbery polymer, saturated with flakes of electricity conducting graphite.
The electrical resistance of the sheet changes when it is squeezed, and this change is detected by an array of transistors beneath the rubber.
However, the touch sensitivity, despite the efforts put in vision and voice recognition for robots, is still in its elementary stages.
According to its developer, the skin can also be used in other fields, like sports, security and medicine.
(Photo source:sina.com)

Mini Cooper Robot : Be sure, this is a fake!! It's an Ad for Mini Cooper / BMW : good idea, really!!
;-)

http://www.r50rd.co.uk/research/internal/v2i/engin/

Vehicle to autonomous biped robot conversion for the Mini Cooper r50.
I first had the vision to build a robot while working as an engineer on the old Mini Coopers in the late 1960s. There were no real robots at the time of course, so it was purely science-fiction. But I always believed a robot would be the most natural complement to the automobile - a full biped, intelligent version having great strength, dexterity and a library of mechanical knowledge. I imagined a robot with the ability to repair vehicles, direct traffic and watch over high-accident crossroads to preempt accidents.
This ambition started to look possible when work began on the new Mini. I've always believed BMW overbuilds many of their parts, so the over-building of certain Mini applications for my robotics use went unnoticed. In 1998, I began tests in a remote location outside Oxford.
In 2000 I thought my formal connection to Mini might be severed when Rover was sold by BMW. Luckily, BMW chose to retain the Mini brand. Subsequently, a few engineers would need to stay in England - Oxford to be exact. I was slated for retirement and was originally from the Oxford area so it raised little suspicion when I offered to stay. From then on, progress was swift.
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