Sensate Skins for RobotsCynthia Breazeal

Dan Stiehl (S.M. MAS student)

Goal & Motivation Develop full-body skin for social robot Functions of skin and touch for human-robot

interaction (HRI) Express Sense Protect Communicate Nurture

Leonardo

“Tactile needs do not seem to change with aging---if anything they seem to increase” Ashley Montagu

“Touch is our most

social sense” Jones & Yarborough

Goal & Motivation

Investigate biologically inspired algorithms for large distributed sensor networks 1.1x10 axons distributed

across surface Efficient and quick processing of

multi-modal information Elegant principles for multi-

modal integration

6

Biologically Inspired Approach

Somatic Alphabet & Hierarchical Organization

Model multiple types of “receptors” Touch, pain, temperature,

proprioception Multi-modal integration

based on primitives (Meredith & Stein)

Somatosensory (Hyvarinen et. al.)

Motor (Bizzi & Mussa-Ivaldi)

Visual (Jones & Palmer, Kruger et. al.)

Motor Cortex Neuron

(hard, soft, curvature)

Joint Angle(posture)

“The Soft Red Ball is Rolling Down My Arm”

Somatosensory Cortical Neuron

(orientation, direction)

Visual Processing

(Shape, Color, Depth)

FSR(indentation)

Capacitive (proximity)

Camera(vision)

WORLD(people and things)

“Letters”

“Words”

“Sentences”

Milestones to Date Mechanical hands

with integrated sensing & computation Articulated fingers for

active touch 40 FSR, capacitive

sensing Silicone skin glove

Milestones to Date Embedded Modular

Scalable sensing network PIC16F876A 20MHz

Microprocessor 57600 baud serial

communication Poll 64 sensors in 6ms.

Hierarchical organization Distribute tactile sensors

over body regions Based on somatopic map

Milestones to Date “Fleshing” out letters

and words of somatosensory alphabet Letters: model slowly and

rapidly adapting mechanoreceptors (FSR)

Words: model population based cortical processing

Centroid Orientation Direction of motion

Motion

Orientation

Direction

Next Steps Apply alphabet to “sentences”

Active touch for exploration and manipulation Communicative touch for interaction with people

Multi-sensor integration based on primitives Add in vision, limb proprioception, movement primitives

Spread to other parts of body according to cortical distribution Arms & Face