Sixth Sense for Robots: Engineers Will Teach Machines Remote Touch
Researchers from Queen Mary University of London and University College London are developing a new interdisciplinary framework to equip robots with an analogue of a “sixth sense.” The goal of the project is to give machines the ability of remote touch — allowing them to detect hidden objects without direct contact by sensing subtle changes in the surrounding environment.
This research lies at the intersection of physiology, psychology, artificial intelligence, and robotics. This skill is well developed in some birds (for example, waders that locate worms by sensing movements of sand grains), but it is scarcely used by humans.
Experiments confirmed that humans possess better remote-touch abilities than existing robots. People can locate buried objects at a depth of up to 2.7 cm (maximum — 6.9 cm) with a success rate of about 70%, while robots equipped with similar sensors currently achieve no more than 40%.
The main task for engineers is not only to improve the sensors but also to understand the mechanisms of data processing in order to replicate the unique human perception.
The development of remote touch will give robots important practical skills: it will be useful for delicate handling of various materials, as well as for searching for hidden objects in archaeology, during search-and-rescue operations, or when working with extraterrestrial soil (such as on Mars). Such sensors will also be valuable in hazardous environments where direct contact with dangerous substances should be avoided.
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