A Robot Hand Built From a "Rubbery Semiconductor" Could Improve Telemedical Diagnoses
Smart skin and medicine-focused robot hand could assist with remote diagnosis and monitoring in future telemedicine systems.
Researchers at the Universities of Houston and Colorado and the Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology (UNIST) have created a rubber-like stretchable semiconductor with which they've built a robot hand they hope will assist with telemedicine diagnoses.
"A rubber-like stretchable semiconductor with high carrier mobility is the most important yet challenging material for constructing rubbery electronics and circuits with mechanical softness and stretchability at both microscopic (material) and macroscopic (structural) levels for many emerging applications," the team explains in the paper's abstract. "However, the development of such a rubbery semiconductor is still nascent.
"Here, we report the scalable manufacturing of high-performance stretchable semiconducting nanofilms and the development of fully rubbery transistors, integrated electronics, and functional devices. The rubbery semiconductor is assembled into a free-standing binary-phased composite nanofilm based on the air/water interfacial assembly method. Fully rubbery transistors and integrated electronics, including logic gates and an active matrix, were developed, and their electrical performances were retained even when stretched by 50%."
The material developed by the team was immediately put to use in a robotic hand designed for remote telemedicine diagnoses featuring temperature sensors, electrical stimulators, and electrophysiological sensors in an effort to give a remote operator sensations normally only available through physical touch. At the same time, the researchers came up with a "smart skin" which was able to accurately map physical presses.
"The development of rubbery semiconducting nanofilms and rubbery electronics," the team concludes, "paves the way for fully rubbery electronics and integrated systems and their applications in robotics and medical care, among others."
The work has been published in the journal Science Advances under open-access terms.