Created a sensor that will allow robots to feel pain

Researchers at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) developed special sensors for humanoid robots and sensor systems. The technology imitates the work of human sensory receptors.

The researchers analyzed how the human body senses changes in the environment. Then they tried to reproduce this perception and reaction to it using electronic components.

The new receptors respond selectively to harmless stimuli. If they detect a potentially dangerous effect, they do not generate an output current.

The sensors are based on diffuse memristors - passive elements that change their resistance depending on the electric charge flowing through them. They use silver particles - they need a relatively small amount of energy to start the diffusion process.

If two sensors are connected, one of which contains a large amount of silver particles, and the other contains much smaller, then the first will not respond to a weak electrical stimulus - only to strong. But in a device with a small number of particles, a thin silver thread is formed with a weak impact. Due to the heating under the influence of current, it will break quickly enough, and the signal will stop coming. Such a mechanism adapts the sensor to weak stimuli.

KIST emphasized that these are the first selective response sensors in which adaptation and de-adaptation depend on the power of stimulation - in this case, electrical. With their help, you can simulate a robot's sensitivity to pain. In humans and many other living organisms, pain sensations appeared in the process of evolution in order to notify of the potential danger of external influences or internal processes.

Scientists propose to use new sensors in biomimetic sensory systems - visual, auditory, olfactory, gustatory or tactile. Such solutions are created on the basis of principles taken from wildlife. The technology can potentially protect humanoid robots from external influences - for example, if they feel pain from blows or burns and can respond adequately to this.