An integration of soft materials, sensors and flexible electronics is bringing robotic “skin” closer than ever to reality
Fill in the gaps in the article extract with the words in bold below:
mundane durability afar detect stretchy
fallen shortvitals envisions gripped inhospitable
Human skin is soft and 1. ……… and has millions of nerve endings that sense heat and touch. This makes it a superb instrument for detecting and responding to the outside world. Engineers have been working to reproduce these abilities in a synthetic version for the past 40 years, but such attempts have always 2. ……….. of the versatility and adaptability of living skin. Now, however, new research is adding more abilities and complexities to bring this field closer to its ultimate goal: an electronic skin, or e-skin, with uses ranging from covering robots to sticking wearable devices onto humans. One day, these devices may even let humans remotely control robots and “feel” the signals they 3. …….. .
(…) Sensing its environment is not all this skin can do. “We also want to make sure human-machine interaction can be involved,” Gao says. (…) This skin enabled the robot to “feel” how tightly it 4. ……… something and to sense if the object was coated in specific chemicals. Meanwhile the humans gained the ability to control the connected robot from 5. ……… and to feel electrical signals from the robot if it detected those chemicals. The researchers say this interaction may one day let a robot stand in for a human controller, like a physical avatar, in places that are 6. …………… to people. (…)
In addition to remotely controlling robots or teaching them to adapt to their environments, electronic skins could have many other applications. (…) Carmel Majidi, a mechanical engineer at Carnegie Mellon University (…) 7. ………… e-skins making good sensors for robots but also for more 8. ………. objects. They could become the basis of soft, flexible touch pads for interactive electronic devices, for example, or for sensitive clothing or upholstery capable of detecting extreme temperatures and other environmental conditions. Such skins could also be helpful in medicine. “The idea there is that [you] want these robotic skins as stickers that you can put on the body, and you can immediately track your 9. ……….,” Majidi says.
When it comes to commercial uses, current e-skin prototypes still have issues to address. 10. ……….. is an important one, Gao notes. “There are a lot of developments. People are getting very close,” he says. “But one of the key challenges for [electronic skins] is reliability and robustness over long-term operation.” Even with such challenges, Gao says there may be robotic skins in industrial settings within the next five years. (…)
In order to read the whole article/check your answers, go to: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/electronic-skin-lets-humans-feel-what-robots-do-mdash-and-vice-versa/
Key: 1.stretchy; 2. fallen short; 3. detect; 4. gripped; 5. afar; 6. inhospitable; 7. envisions; 8. mundane; 9. vitals; 10. durability
Glossary
- to fall short – to fail to reach an amount or standard that was expected or hoped for, causing disappointment
- versatility – having many different qualities
- upholstery – soft material that covers furniture such as armchairs and sofas
- robustness – the state of being strong and healthy
Practice makes perfect
Watch the first 2 minutes of the video and complete the gaps in the excerpt with missing words:
Between you and the rest of the world lies an interface that makes up 16% of your physical 1. ……… . This is your skin, the largest organ in your body. 2. ……. out flat, it would cover close to 1.7 square metres of ground.
Its purpose may seem 3. ………, to keep our insides in. But a look beyond the surface reveals that it plays a surprising number of roles in our lives. First, the basics.
Skin is the foundation of the integumentary system, which also incorporates your hair, nails, and specialised 4. ………. and nerves. Made up of three layers, the epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis, skin’s 5. ……… varies from .5 millimetres at its thinnest and up to 4 millimetres at its 6. ……… . It also carries out three key functions, protecting, regulating, and sensing the world beyond its limits.
On a daily basis, its huge surface processes hundreds, if not thousands, of physical sensations, 7. …….. mostly on large, pressure-sensitive skin components called Merkel cells. In your fingertips alone, there are 750 Merkel cells per each square centimetre of skin, 8. ………. with over 2,500 receptors that give you your sense of touch. This surface is also the body’s first major line of 9. ………. .
Without it, you’d be a 10. ………. mass of tissue and fluids, 11. ………….. exposed to the elements. Skin effectively 12. …….. off your insides and also absorbs pressure and shock with flexible collagen that makes up most of its dermal layer. The epidermis is made up mainly of skin cells called keratinocytes that are completely replaced every four weeks. (…)
Key: 1.weight; 2. laid; 3. obvious; 4. glands; 5. thickness; 6. thickest; 7. relying; 8. coupled; 9. defence; 10. soggy; 11. fatally; 12. seals
Fill in the sentence gaps with the words in bold below. Ensure the grammatical form of verbs in correct.
inhospitable mundane robust fall short grip soggy
1. August car sales ……….. of the industry’s expectations.
2. The ground was too ……….. to build a house on it.
3. We were talking about ………… things such as what happened at work.
4. He trekked across some of the most ………….. terrain in the world.
5. Though he was over seventy, he was still ………. and active.
6. Whenever my grandmother sees me, she ……… me and kisses me on the forehead.
Key: 1. fell short; 2. soggy; 3. mundane; 4. inhospitable; 5. robust; 6. grips
Watch and revise!
The Future of Touch
E-Skin’s Versatility and Adaptability
https://www.cloud.worldwideschool.pl/index.php/s/R6Z5cZYReMBHynA
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