MIT Develops Robot Fingers Who Can Feel Buried Goods

Researchers at MIT have developed a new sleek robot finger designed to feel buried goods. This technology uses tactile sensing to identify underground objects, and researchers believe it can someday be used to help disarm land mines and examine buried cables. The researchers said identifying items buried in granular material as sand was very difficult.

Identifying objects in granular materials with robots requires a fairly slim finger to penetrate the sand, just cellphone to get out of the material sought, and is quite sensitive to feel the detailed form of buried objects. The sharp robot finger developed is equipped with tactile sensing which allows it to identify the objects buried, and called finger diggers.

In testing, finger diggers can dig through granular materials such as sand or rice and correctly feel the form of objects buried in the material. Trying to identify objects buried in granular materials such as sand, pebbles, and other types of loose particles are not new challenges. Researchers have used technology such as ground penetration radar or ultrasonic vibrations to have objects buried under the granular material in the past.

These techniques provide a scene that runs away from submerged objects, makes it challenging to distinguish materials, such as telling the difference between stone and bones. The team must design the robot finger slim and sharply tipped. In previous work, the team has used sensors made from clear gel covered with reflective membranes that can damage when objects are pressed against it called Gelsight. Behind the different membranes of LED lights and cameras.

Light shines through gel and to the membrane when the camera collects membrane reflection patterns. Computer vision algorithms are then extracted through the form of the contact area where the soft finger touches the object. The device was very good at artificial touch but very large. The modified gelsght sensor in the latest research changes its shape into a sleek cylinder with a sloping tip.

They then removed two-thirds of LED lights relying on a combination of blue LEDs and colored fluorescent paint to save complexity and space. The result is a very functional and capable finger sensor. At present, researchers are exploring new movements to optimize the ability of finger diggers to navigate various media.