This mechanism can also be applied to robots, even if they might not feel pain in the same way we do. “When we move away from the source of pain, it helps us not get hurt”, Johannes Kuehn, one of the researchers, told IEEE Spectrum. That means “we have no problem putting them to work in risky environments or having them perform task that range between slightly unpleasant and definitely fatal to a human”. The pair are using the human nervous system as their inspiration.
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Kuehn and his colleague, Sami Haddadin, have developed a prototype reflex controller with a tactile fingertip sensor that senses temperature and pressure.
RESEARCHERS IN GERMANY are hoping the ability to feel pain will make robots smarter and help them avoid accidents. Much like nerves in the human body, the team created a, “nervous robot-tissue model that is inspired by the human skin structure”, and grafted it to a robotic arm. The robot “feels” uncomfortable and shall smoothly retract until the contact event is over and return thereafter. For severe pain, the bot goes into a passive mode. “Learning is all about trial and error”.
Research remains in its nascent stages for now, but as robots become more autonomous and work alongside – rather than under – humans more frequently, this pain research may become a crucial component of a robot’s future. Earlier this year, a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) sponsored started teaching robots empathy by making them read children’s books, which is just one of many other DARPA projects that aim to make robots understand right and wrong.
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Haddadin and Kuehn presented their paper at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Sweden last week, and as you can see from the video below it’s certainly an intriguing innovation for modern robotics. Eventually, their work could lead to robots that are more human-like than ever.
