Nanotechnology has brought us many advances such as electronic skin (e-skin) and electronic eye implants (e-eyes), and now, a research team from Berkeley Lab and the University of California Berkeley is on the verge of creating electronic whiskers. The study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, describes the tactile sensors the team has created from composite films of carbon nanotubes and silver nanoparticles — similar to the highly sensitive whiskers of cats and rats. The pressure of a single Pascal — equivalent to the pressure exerted on a table surface by a dollar bill — can be felt by the new e-whiskers. The researchers see many potential applications, including giving robots new abilities to “see” and “feel” their surrounding environment.
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