Release date: 2016-08-10
The human hand has 17,000 tactile sensillas, which allows us to pick things up by hand and feel connected to the real world. In contrast, even if an amputated patient has a prosthetic arm, the sensitivity is not only inferior to the original human organs, but the prosthetic is unable to transmit a "touch".
Since 2010, Professor Bao Zinnan of Stanford University has been working to change the status of such prosthetics. She invented an electronic skin that covers the surface of the prosthetic, feels stress, repairs itself, and processes relevant sensory data.
Born and raised in Nanjing, China, Professor Bao Zinnan immigrated to the United States after completing three years of undergraduate courses at Nanjing University and entered the Chemistry Department of the Illinois State University of Chicago. In 1995, she obtained her Ph.D. from the Department of Chemistry at the University of Chicago, and then joined the prestigious Bell Labs. Since 2004, she has joined the Department of Chemical Engineering at Stanford University in the United States. She is currently a professor at the department and one of the best female chemists in the United States.
The template is shown in the figure below. Each of the fingertips of the wooden dummy has a tactile sensor made of such an electronic skin. The sensor is connected to an electrical lead, and the electrical lead carries data to the electronic control center of the palm.
This is a big step forward in prosthetic repair. This electronic skin allows patients with amputated and burned to handle some daily tasks, such as picking up a small object, and may also help reduce phantom limb pain (meaning that the patient feels that the limb being cut is still there and that pain occurs there) ).
Moreover, Bao Zhenan still wants to go further. She hopes that this electronic skin can not only imitate the skin of the human hand, but also be superior to the latter in some aspects. For example, besides being sensitive to pressure, it is light, durable and flexible. Flexible and self-healing, just like real skin.
To achieve this goal, Bao Zhennan developed a new chemical formula for each component in the electronic skin, replacing the hard material, such as silicon, with soft organic molecules, polymers and nanomaterials.
The specific manufacturing process, as shown below, the researchers made a transistor on a resilient rubber material. This layer of rubber is like a sticky sticker. When it is peeled off from the glass, it is coated with a layer of semiconducting carbon nanotubes, thus forming the effective area of ​​an electronic switch.
Research teams sometimes mix electronic materials with rubber materials, sometimes with electronic materials on top of the rubber. To create a tactile sensor, the researchers fused the conductive carbon into the body, and when the pressure on the layer of rubber changed, there was a voltage transfer.
The figure below shows an air brush loaded with silver nanoparticle conductive ink that can be printed through a mold to print electrical contact materials and wires.
In addition, the team also found that if these sensors are covered with a pyramid pattern, the sensitivity of the touch will be increased. This pattern is very similar to the fingerprint lines of our fingertips or depressions. Such a design can make these sensors as sharp as our fingers.
As shown in the figure below, through a microscope, you can see a plurality of pyramid-shaped patterns on a tactile sensor, each pattern having a width of 50 micrometers to help increase sensitivity.
Now Bao Zhenan is still developing a more weird material. This material is more elastic than human skin and can be stretched to 100 times its original length without tearing. At the same time, it can heal itself after cutting, without the need for reheating or other extra help.
But she found that it was not enough to invent new materials: the data from artificial skin must be transmitted to the nervous system in a form that is understandable to the human body. This obviously points to a more ambitious goal: one day it can be connected to the human nervous system to convey a tactile sensation.
Therefore, Bao Zhenan is currently working with her team on the circuit design to pass signals to the nervous system. I hope that one day, electronic skin will not only help people with physical disabilities to regain the sensitivity of the body, but also make them feel the touch from their loved ones.
Source: Silicon Valley Frontier
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