Robots can now 'see' touch thanks to a new color-changing tactile sensor

Engineers at Queen Mary University of London have built a new color-changing tactile sensor, which allows robots to "see" and touch in real-time. The novel idea was invented by Giacomo Sasso, a postdoctoral researcher at the School of Engineering and Materials Science at Queen Mary University of London, and it works by transforming invisible forces into dynamic color patterns. This enables high-resolution maps of contact, strain and pressure to emerge instantly.