Yoon Eui-sik, professor of the Department of Electrical Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) and his team announced Sunday they had developed a tactile sensor by placing a lattice of copper electrodes on a film of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS), a synthetic rubber that feels like human skin.

The researchers said the sensor, which has a spatial resolution of one millimeter, was the most advanced sensor for robots developed so far because the material was very similar to human skin and was capable of recognizing stimuli from a distance of one millimeter.

The team said the University of Tokyo also developed a tactile sensor for robots last year, but it could only recognize stimuli 2 millimeters away from the sensor, and since it was made of plastic lacked the softness of human skin.

Dr. Lee Hyung-kyu of the research team said that the sensor recognized the exact shape of letters when they placed a stamp on it lettered “KAIST,” whose characters were 1 millimeter thick. The team's goal is to develop a perfect tactile sensor that can perceive temperature and forces operating horizontally.

(Lee Young-wan, ywlee@chosun.com )