A team of researchers in Japan (and where else?) Is working on one synthetic leather which could help robots empathize with humans.
A research team at Osaka University in Japan is working on an artificial skin that could one day help robots "feel" pain. Who knows, maybe the invention helps give a little soul to objects like these.
While true “touch-sensitive” robots are currently a long way off, this research marks an important step forward in making them a reality. The technology works by embedding sensors into soft, artificial skin that can detect touch, from gentle touching to more “painful” sensations, such as being hit.
Announced at the annual meeting ofAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science, robots with this skin could potentially signal emotions.
Artificial skin, real empathy
Minoru Asada, a member of the research team, says this small development could ultimately lead to robots feeling pain like real people. He calls it an artificial “painful nervous system.”
If successful, it is hoped that this will help robots understand emotional and physical pain like humans.
The Japanese team has already developed a disturbingly realistic-looking robotic head that can change facial expressions in response to tactile and painful signals from synthetic skin. It has an Italian name, “Affetto,” and can reliably pick up a variety of tactile sensations. Take a look.
A future of better robots
According to the neuroscientist Kingson Man from the University of South California, this development could enable richer interaction between machines and the world in the future. Soft, sensitive skin should allow for “possibility to interact in more versatile and empathetic ways” .
Asada hopes this development could open the door to learning in robots to better recognize pain in humans. It would be a vitally important ability for robots designed to help others, such as the elderly.
Not just skin: the robot does not have enough sensations, it needs feelings
“There is an important distinction between a robot that responds predictably to a painful stimulus and a robot that can approximate an internal feeling,” says Antonio Damasio, neuroscientist at the University of South California. In a recent article, he and Man argue that if robots were programmed to experience a mental state of pain, not just physical pain, then an “artificial feeling” might indeed arise.
Robots with haptic sensors that detect touch and pain are “like having a robot that smiles when you talk to it,” he says Antonio Damasio. “They are devices for communication between a machine and a human.” Although this is an interesting development, "is not the same thing" of a robot designed to develop a kind of internal experience, he added.
