In factories and warehouses, robots generally outperform humans in strength and precision. Artificial intelligence software can drive a car, defeat a chess master, and defeat human players in the Dangerous Edge quiz.
But the machine still lacks some vital abilities, so it is still difficult to catch up with humans in many functions in the short term—a precise and perfect touch is one of them.
For example, Nikola Blevins, a head and neck surgeon at Stanford Hospital, often performs ear surgery. During the procedure, he must master the skill to separate the ear bones from the inner surface of the thin flaps.
Bravens is working with robotics scholars J. Kenneth Salibury and Sonny Chan to design a software that can be "rehearsed" before a formal surgery. The program combines X-ray and magnetic resonance imaging data to create a lifelike 3D inner ear model for surgeons to practice. It is also possible to perform a "virtual trip" on the patient's skull to "feel" the nuances of cartilage, bone and soft tissue in a virtual way.
However, no matter how nuanced, this software can only provide a rough sense of touch for Bravens. “To be a virtual surgery, you have to be tactile.†He refers to techniques that mimic human touch through computer simulation techniques.
The limitations faced by this software are typical in the robotics industry, and because of this, the instinctive task for humans is difficult to achieve on machines. Since the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab designed the first robotic arm in the 1960s, robots have learned to do repetitive work in the factory. But there are always difficulties in many basic functions, such as opening a closed door, climbing up after falling, taking coins out of your pocket, and turning a pencil on your finger.
In academia, the correlation between this advanced artificial intelligence technology and poor practical ability has even a special name: Moravik Paradox. This is a theory named after the robotic pioneer Hans Moravec, who wrote a passage in 1988: "To make a computer perform in an intelligence test or a chess game." Adult performance is relatively easy; but it is quite difficult or even impossible to make a computer with the ability to feel and act like a one-year-old."
If robots are to be truly collaborated with humans like waiters, hygienists, secretaries, and health workers, they must rely on advances in the fields of haptics and kinematics.
"The problem is complicated and takes time," says Ken Goldberg, a robotic scientist at the University of California at Berkeley. "Humans are good at these things, and we have evolved over millions of years."
Human touch is extremely precise
As a feeling, the complexity of touch is far more than the imagination of ordinary people. Humans have a range of organs that accurately sense pressure, impulse, temperature and vibration. (German researchers have found that raccoons have evolved the most complex brain functions in the animal world, allowing them to handle tactile impulses in the dark).
Studies have shown that the degree of sophistication of human touch is several orders of magnitude higher than previously thought. For example, Swedish scientists published a paper in Nature that the dynamic touch of the human body (for example, when a finger touches the surface) can distinguish protrusions up to 13 nanometers in height, which is 0.0000005 inches.
This is equivalent to the size of a molecule. According to Mark Rutland, professor of surface chemistry at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, if a person's fingers are as big as the earth, it is enough to feel the difference in size between a car and a house. Physiologists believe that the interaction between the finger and the various surfaces can be detected by an organ called a mechanoreceptor, which is rooted in different depths of the human skin. Some can feel the size or shape of the object, and others can feel the vibration.
Specific to subtle surface vibrations, the key message comes from the Pacinian corpuscles, an elliptical structure about 1 mm long that signals when the shape changes.
The goal of haptics is to replicate this sensibility. Therefore, this discipline plays an increasingly important role in the process of calculating the connection between the world and human beings. One of the most significant advances in haptics was created by Mako Surgical, a company founded in 2004 by robotics Rony Abovitz. In 2006, Mako Surgical began offering a robot that provides accurate feedback to surgeons during the repair of knee arthritis.
“I think haptics is a way of integrating machine intelligence with human intelligence. It allows machines and humans to use their strengths separately. I think there will be an interesting way of symbiosis between the two.†Abewitz said .
“The surgeon still has a sense of control and can focus on the action and strength. But all intelligent guided tasks, as well as the surgeon's routine activities, are the responsibility of the machine.â€
Robots are dangerous
Even in the industrial field where the status of robots has been established, experts are concerned that people working side by side with robots may be at risk. Robots have caused dozens of worker casualties in the United States. If it is to really make the robot revolution happen, scientists must create machines that can strictly comply with safety standards, and the cost can not be too high.
“In the past 30 years, industrial robots have always focused on one indicator: fast and cheap,†said Kent Massey, senior project director at HDT Global, a US robot company. “We always value speed, which is good, but Today's conventional robots are rigid and cumbersome and stiff, so it's dangerous."
Messi's company is one of many robotic design companies that are now looking at safer products. Boston's Rethink RoboTIcs and Denmark's Universal Robots have developed "elastic" robots that sense human contact. Universal's system complements this by mating a series of sensors and software at the joints. Rethink's robots use a "series elastic actuator" - essentially a spring at the joint that mimics the elasticity of the muscles and tendons of the human body - and acoustic sensors, allowing the robot to slow down when approaching humans. speed.
In addition to improving basic security, scientists are still paying attention to more subtle touches. Last year, Georgia Tech researchers published a paper in the journal Science that they assembled a small set of transistors called "taxel" that can measure charge changes to determine mechanical strain or pressure. The goal is to design a variety of touch-sensitive applications, including artificial skin for robots or other devices.
Multiple auxiliary solutions
The focus of many studies has focused on vision and its role in touch. The da Vinci Xi surgical system developed by IntuiTIve Surgical uses a high-definition 3D camera that allows doctors to perform remote fine-tuning operations with micro-surgical instruments. The company is also working to improve the surgeon's field of vision and clarity, as today's haptic technology is still far from meeting the requirements of many surgical procedures, such as performing the necessary operations on soft tissues such as organs.
Curt Salisbury, chief engineer of non-profit organization SRI InternaTIonal, believes that although surgeons can rely on the visual cues provided by soft tissue to understand the pressure exerted by the tools in his hands, in many cases, it is still difficult to rely solely on vision. Make a full judgment.
“Tactile feedback is still critical when the vision is poor,†he said.
Other researchers believe that as the ever-evolving sensors more accurately mimic human skin, coupled with algorithms that combine vision, haptics, and kinematics, they can advance the next generation of robots.
Eduardo Torres-Jara, assistant professor of robotics at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts, is exploring a path. He defined a theory called "Sensitive Robotics" and developed a model based on which the robot's hands and feet are in contact with the ground or objects to help the robot move, grab, and manipulate.
“Everything is done to identify tactile events and to understand them very well,†he said. With artificial bionic skin that detects small magnetic changes, he has developed a two-legged robot that automatically balances and even walks by measuring changes in the support of the sole.
If you can get more powerful computing power, you can improve your tactile abilities, so the dawn may be ahead. Berkeley's roboticist Goodberg has begun designing a cloud computing robotic system that can gain powerful computing power over the Internet.
“The idea of ​​cloud robots has inspired me,†he said. “It can break through the limits we face in computing power.â€
In July of this year, under the auspices of the National Science Foundation, Brown University, Cornell University, Stanford University, and the University of California, Berkeley robotics team jointly designed a database called Robo Brain, hoping to provide a dedicated storage. An online platform for pictures and videos that supports robots that perform various actions in the real world. For example, any networked robot or robot can get information on how to identify, grab, and pick up a coffee mug.
Other haptic researchers believe that artificially replicating the sense of touch will have a major impact on the development of automated robots, and even on the various systems that enhance human capabilities.
Last fall, Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering at Stanford University, Allison Okamura, taught an online course in haptics. The students assembled the “hapkit†component designed by Occam and others, and then programmed virtual devices such as springs and shock absorbers, and they can operate as they do in the real world.
These students explored new projects, adjusted their hardware, and shared their projects with each other. Okamra said that the enthusiasm of the students is completely understandable.
“If you have all the feelings – sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell – but someone will take them one by one, which one are you most reluctant to give up?†she asked, “almost everyone’s answer is It's visual, but my answer is touch."
Function description
The socket is ordinary converter,with two output 5V2A power USB power supply at the same time,can be very convenient in use electrical appliances and recharge the equipment at the same time,such as digital products like Iphone Ipad,MP3,MP4 etc.The charge apply to full range of international AC output,no-load power consumption less than 0.3W,with short circuit,overload,over-voltage protection,can be convenient for your life and save more energy
Timer Control Time Adgustment
1.Press the power switch 1 time,the 1HOUR LED will light on.The Timer into ON mode,USB and control socket output ON .
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Failure analysis:
1.check whether the power supply connection is good
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Warning Note:
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