Researchers are constantly working on ways to give robots a human-like sense of touch. The Asynchronous Coded Electronic Skin (ACES) by NUS researchers is new electronic skin system that can respond 1000 times faster than the human sensory nervous system.
This electronic skin system can be paired with any kind of sensor skin layers. As the researchers explain:
ACES can detect touches more than 1,000 times faster than the human sensory nervous system. For example, it is capable of differentiating physical contact between different sensors in less than 60 nanoseconds — the fastest ever achieved for an electronic skin technology — even with large numbers of sensors. ACES-enabled skin can also accurately identify the shape, texture and hardness of objects within 10 milliseconds, ten times faster than the blinking of an eye.
Such a system can be used to create an electronic skin that self-repairs. It can be also be used to create more realistic prosthetic limbs.