Today, while wondering how far more artificial intelligence technology can go, thousands of times more effective technologies continue to emerge that …

During the virtually held Robotics: Science and Systems 2020 conference this week, scientists affiliated with the National University of Singapore (NUS) presented research that combines robotic vision and touch sensing with Intel-designed neuromorphic processors. The researchers claim the "electronic skin" -- dubbed Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin (ACES) -- can detect touches more than 1,000 times faster than the human nervous system and identify the shape, texture, and hardness of objects within 10 milliseconds. At the same time, ACES is designed to be modular and highly robust to damage, ensuring it can continue functioning as long as at least one sensor remains. The human sense of touch is fine-grained enough to distinguish between surfaces that differ by only a single layer of molecules, yet the majority of today's autonomous robots operate solely via visual, spatial, and inertial processing techniques. Bringing humanlike touch to machines could significantly improve their utility and even lead to new use cases.

Robert Gaunt tests Nathan Copeland's ability to detect touch by tapping fingers on a robotic hand. Robert Gaunt tests Nathan Copeland's ability to detect touch by tapping fingers on a robotic hand. Twelve years ago, a car wreck took away Nathan Copeland's ability to control his hands or sense what his fingers were touching. A few months ago, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center gave Copeland a new way to reach out and feel the world around him. It's a mind-controlled robotic arm that has pressure sensors in each fingertip that send signals directly to Copeland's brain.