Smart skin Researchers aim to equip robots with "smart" skin

Related Vendors

Fraunhofer-Institut für Hochfrequenzphysik und Radartechnik FHR

FAULHABER Drive Systems

Taiwan Machine Tool & Accessory Builders' Association (TMBA)

Wuxi InfiMotion Technology Co., Ltd.

Human-robot interactions will increase in society. This requires an improvement in communication between humans and machines. Artificial skin is supposed to help.

Robots must be able to predict human actions and recognize their intentions due to the trend discussed above. This requires flexible metamaterials or planar metasurface antennas with highly integrated electronics that can capture the immediate environment. Such surfaces, which envelop a robot like an adaptive, "intelligent" skin, are now being developed by the Fraunhofer Institute for High Frequency Physics and Radar Techniques (FHR) together with six partners in the EU project "FITNESS". Equipped with metasurface antennas, future robots will be able to scan everything in the near field more accurately and communicate better with their base station in the far field, it continues. This is especially important in the industrial environment when dealing with robots (robot-human collaboration). Because safety is the most important thing.

Scanning the near and far environment is possible

"Intelligent" antennas in the form of novel electromagnetic metamaterial surfaces with integrated electronics are supposed to bring about improvements. The flexible and stretchable metasurface antennas, which are suitable for emitting surface waves, are expected to scan the immediate environment much better than conventional antennas, thereby increasing human safety and the performance of the robots. As said, metasurface antennas are planar antennas integrated into plastic films that can adapt to the contour of the robot. Because they are so flat, these antennas can be bent and stretched and laid around the robot like skin. Alternatively, depending on the application, they can also simply be attached to the robot arm. They are therefore also known as smart skins or "intelligent" skin. The future antenna, which is the focus, is characterized by its ability to both scan the immediate environment and detect movement. At the same time, it is capable of radio-based communication with the base station in the industrial hall, which is not free from interference. It is emphasized that something like this does not yet exist.

Promising alternative to the usual beamforming

The flat antenna systems are supposed to enable so-called beamforming—a method for determining the position of sound sources in wave fields—so that the adjustable electromagnetic beam always looks at the base station. This would guarantee a stronger, more stable signal and increase the range. So far, so-called phased arrays support beamforming. However, many antennas are connected in a group. The phase of each individual antenna element is variable, allowing the direction of the group antenna to be influenced. In conventional group antennas, the antenna elements and their electronics are tightly placed—this is expensive, heats up, and is prone to errors, as the researchers explain the disadvantages. Metasurface antennas, on the other hand, could be constructed with far less electronics—without losing the properties of the conventional construction method. The new concept saves costs and is more compact. The novel construction concept also allows a high degree of freedom in the design of the radiated fields and the best possible extraction of the gesture signals.