Researchers at the University of Glasgow in Scotland have invented the next big thing in robotics: artificial skin that can sense pain.
Brilliant, you might think. Robots can feel pain now! If that’s not a recipe for a robot apocalypse, what is?
This artificial skin does more than register pain. It can learn—and remember—different kinds of touch. By learning how to respond to different touch types, from gentle pokes to painful pricks, robots can become more interactive—in ways consistent with human expectations.
At the lab in Scotland, a scientist pricks a robotic hand with a needle. It doesn’t respond. But after a few more tries, the artificial skin has learned to shrink from the feeling.
Scientists have created artificial skin before, but never like this. Some other attempts at artificial skin sent huge amounts of information to a central processing unit (think the computer’s “brain”) with every touch. Processing all that information takes time. It makes the robots slow to react.
Actual human skin doesn’t send the brain a signal for everything it picks up. Instead, the peripheral nervous system starts processing information at the point of contact. Real skin figures out what’s important to tell the brain. People feel things instantly.
This new artificial skin mimics that process. Scientists have printed tiny sensors called synaptic transistors all across the surface of the “skin.” Those transistors start processing input data right away, just like a human nervous system. No more delays.
But hold on. Isn’t this all just plain cruel? Keeping robots in a lab and forcing them to feel pain?
Don’t worry. Robots can’t feel exactly the same way humans do.
People are made in God’s image. We have souls. Our minds are more than electrical signals running to and from our brains. We can really feel things—sensations and emotions interact, along with our design that lets us grasp the existence of meaning attached to everything, including suffering. When you cry “Ouch!” after getting stung by a bee, it’s not just a programmed response. You actually felt pain. And something in you recognizes that pain is not normal. It’s a response to an abnormal world—altered by the effects of sin.
Robots can’t do that. With Scotland’s new artificial skin, a scientist can train a robot to back away when poked with a needle. But scientists can’t train robots to really feel pain—or interpret it—in the same ways humans do.
So what’s all this for? Here’s one application: Surgeons rely on their sense of touch when performing operations. But sometimes complicated surgeries require tools that inhibit the surgeon’s sense of touch. This new artificial skin could help surgeons extend a sense of touch through their tools.
One day, this artificial skin could actually help humanity. As long as the robot uprising doesn’t come first!
Why? God’s intricate design for the human body allows us to sense and interpret touch and pain. By copying God’s wisdom, scientists can improve robots to help the people.
