Peratech has been commissioned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab to develop a new type of electronic 'skin' that enables robotic devices to detect not only that they have been touched but also where and how hard the touch was. The key to the sensing technology is Peratech's 'QTC', or Quantum Tunnelling Composites, which provide a measured response to force and/or touch by a change in electrical resistance. Easily formed into shapes QTC can be 'draped' over an object much like a garment.
QTCs provide a 'proportional' response - in other words detecting 'how hard' they have been touched. Further, using Peratech's XY scanning technology, the robot is able to detect where on a matrix of sensors applied to areas such as the forearms, shoulders and torso, it has been touched.
This current research is hoped to produce results that can be applied to a range of robotics projects being undertaken by MIT.
Peratech's QTC technology has an established track record in robotics, having previously been adopted by NASA for its Robonaut device and by Shadow Robot in the UK, producers of what is widely regarded as the World's most advanced robotic hand. The project with MIT is a World first in enabling a human to interact - through touch across the body of a robot - much as they would with another human.