Scientists create robotic skin so sensitive that it can feel the gentle patter of ladybirds walking across its surface
Artificial skin could soon be created which could be sensitive enough to feel the steps of a lady-bird, or for the cruel-hearted, the stretching and tearing of a Chinese burn.
Engineers at Seoul National University are working on a prototype ‘flexible electronic sensor’, which uses interlocks hairs which can sense objects through static attraction.
The breakthrough – which was based on research into natural hairs on a beetle’s back – could mean artificial limbs could be made to be more sensitive.
The artificial hairs are created from polymer fibres – tiny sheets of material is just 100 nanometres in diametre and a micrometre (one millionth of a metre) in length.
While invisible to the human hair, their tiny size and shape, and their metallic covering which makes them conductive to electricity, all combine to allow highly-sensitive readings.