ACES to give robots human-like sense of touch

Developed by a team of National University of Singapore (NUS) researchers, the Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin (ACES) is said to have ultra-high responsiveness and robustness to damage and can be paired with any kind of sensor skin layers to function effectively as an electronic skin.

The breakthrough by Assistant Professor Benjamin Tee and his team from NUS Materials Science and Engineering is reported in Science Robotics.

“Humans use our sense of touch to accomplish almost every daily task, such as picking up a cup of coffee or making a handshake. Without it, we will even lose our sense of balance when walking. Similarly, robots need to have a sense of touch in order to interact better with humans, but robots today still cannot feel objects very well,” said Asst Prof Tee.

ACES is made up of a network of sensors connected via a single electrical conductor and differs from current electronic skins that have interlinked wiring systems that can make them sensitive to damage and difficult to scale up.