The market size of the newly developed 'robot skin' rehabilitation material with new soft sensors exceeds 10 billion

Recently, a “robotic skin” jointly created by researchers from the University of British Columbia (hereinafter referred to as UBC) and Honda was launched. The skin is made of intelligent new soft sensors and is highly sensitive and stretchable. This latest research will bring broad application prospects to the robotics and rehabilitation medical (prosthetic) markets.

The development of new soft sensors can make robot limbs or prostheses adjustable, and provide real-time feedback on touch strength through sensors, helping robots complete more complex hand operations. Like picking up an egg from the table without crushing it. Researchers said that the "robotic skin" created by new soft sensors is just like human skin, soft and sensitive with tactile properties, and has more promotion value than alternative prostheses without functional sensing currently on the market.

UBC team leader Dr. Mirza Saquib Sarwar said: "Our sensors can sense many types of forces, allowing a prosthetic limb or robotic arm to respond flexibly and precisely to tactile stimulation. For example, our robotic arm can easily hold an egg Or a paper cup filled with water, making sure they don't break and fall." It is reported that Mirza Saquib Sarwar previously worked in electrical and computer engineering at UBC School of Applied Sciences and designed this new soft sensor while studying for his PhD.

▍The biggest difficulty in “robot skin” is to give the robot tactile perception capabilities

It can be seen from the published research footage that this sensor is mainly composed of silicone, and silicone is widely used in skin special effects in Hollywood movies. The team designed the "robotic skin" to have the functions of bending and folding, making it visually closer to human skin.

Dr. John Madden, director of UBC's Advanced Materials and Process Engineering Laboratory (AMPEL) and professor of electrical and computer engineering, said: "The sensor we use uses a weak electric field to sense objects, similar to the touch screen effect we use on tablets, but And unlike touch screens, because our sensor is very soft, it can effectively analyze and sense the intervening force, so that the force can be controlled more accurately."

This latest research technology was developed by the UBC team in collaboration with Honda Research Institute Frontier Robotics. Honda was the first company to start researching humanoid robots. It developed the famous ASIMO robot. In addition, it also developed rehabilitation exoskeleton robots and Honda Avatar Robot.

▍This new type of soft sensor is highly practical and scalable

Unlike other expensive sensors, the new soft sensor developed by the UBC team is very simple to manufacture and the cost is not high, making it easy to mass produce it.

Dr. Mirza Saquib Sarwar pointed out: "The robot skin created by the new soft sensor has more realistic touch sensing capabilities, but we also need to be clearer, that is, the sensor cells on the fingers of human skin are a hundred times stronger than our technology. , therefore, human arms can perform more complex operations, such as lighting matches without burning their fingers, sewing clothes without letting needles pierce their fingers. These are the directions that soft sensors are currently trying to solve. I believe that with the development of artificial intelligence The arrival of the system is expected to make up for the shortcomings of sensors in the field of authentication."

▍After large-scale mass production, it is expected to leverage the scale of the tens of billions of prosthetic limbs market

According to Burgess Consulting, the global knee prosthesis market will reach 9.447 billion yuan in 2022, and the market size will reach 14.322 billion yuan in 2028, with an estimated annual compound growth rate of 7.18%. Zhiyan Consulting has conducted detailed statistics on China's prosthetic limb market. The data shows that the size of my country's prosthetic limb market last year was about 3.516 billion yuan. Upper limb products are mainly low-value-added decorative prostheses, and the market size is only about 511 million yuan.

Robot Lecture Hall believes that if the UBC team’s new soft sensor can achieve medical device registration and mass production in the next five years, it will be possible to enter the tens of billions of rehabilitation materials track in the future, allowing patients to have better mobility. Return to normal life.

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