Printable Sensor Laden Skin for Robots

According to several studies this decade has seen maximum technological advancements in the past 50 years. The radical positive changes in technology have made this the age of tablet computer and Smartphone. This is the era of touch sensitive surfaces and they’re so fragile that anyone with a cracked Smartphone screen can easily attest to the fact. While touch sensitive phones or TV devices seems possible, covering a bridge, airplane or a robot with sensors would require technology that’s both lucrative and lithe to manufacture.

Creation of a new device 

However, our world-renowned scientists are known for their superficial capability and unending endeavors to create something new. A group of dedicated scientists at MIT’s CSAIL or Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory have devised that 3D printing could make the work possible. The researchers tried to demonstrate the viability of printable and flexible electronics that combine processing circuitry and sensors. The amazing fact is that the researchers were actually able to create a device that would react to mechanical changes by altering its surface color.

The scientists found as their inspiration, ‘goldbug’ or more commonly known as the golden tortoise beetle that changes its color from golden to red, when prodded or poked. This reaction in both the beetle and the new device is caused by the mechanical stresses. MIT graduate Subhramanium Sundaram says, that the network of interconnects and sensors are called sesnsimotor. Sundaram, who led the project, said that their attempt was to try and replicate sensimotor pathways and install it within a 3D printed project. So, in their attempt to make their vision possible, they considered testing the simplest organism they could find.

Several scientists made it possible 

To demonstrate their new concept and design, the researchers presented their concept in Advanced Material Technologies. Along with Sundaram who is the first author of the paper, were his senior associates like professor of EECS Marc Balbo, and associate professor Wojciech Matusik. Others who joined the paper include technical assistant in MCFG David Kim, an EECS student named Ziwen Jiang, and a former postdoc, Pitchaya Sitthi Amom. A type of plastic substrate is used to deposit flexible circuitry on printable electronics and for decades this has been a major area of research. According to Sundaram the range of the device itself greatly increases once the print in put on the substrate.

However, he also says that the types on materials on which the print can be deposited get limited by the choice of substrate. This happens because; the printed substrate would be created by combining different materials, interlocked in complicated but regular patterns. Hagen Klauk who is a world-renowned scientist at Max Planck institute is quite impressed by the creation of this concept. According to him, printing an optoelectronic system that too with all the components and substrate by depositing all the liquids and solids is certainly useful, interesting and novel. Further, the demonstration of this method makes the system functional and proves this novel approach is 100% possible. This approach will lead to improvised manufacturing environments, and dedicated substrate materials will no longer be available.

3D Bioprinter Which Can Print Functional Human Skin

Aging is a natural process; as we are aware that every living animal, plant etc. is not immortal, whatever born has to die or destroyed, according to the law of nature. The human race is not an exception and some aging signs use to take place with the growing age, which is quite annoying for the person concerned, as nobody wants to admit the decaying of age and its symptoms.

To get rid of the aging problems, such as; wrinkles, fine lines, sagging, dark circles around the eye region are some of the most annoying signs, which have the potential of destroying the youthful look to a great extent and people use to try lots of means of various natures, including surgery.

The massive growth in the science and technology have paved the way for some of the most interesting and innovative solutions for arresting these disturbing symptoms, with an intention to get back the younger look.

Recently some scientists in Spain have invented a magical solution, by developing one of the most promising prototypes for the 3D bioprinter, which has the capability of producing some human skin with entire functionality.

Issues to be noted

It can be noted that the decayed skin texture can soon be rectified by replacing the affected area with the printed skins, which have all the functional characters and elements to provide maximum support for the user. The patching up of this mechanically printed skin can be of great support in reducing the aging signs on visible areas and helps the concerned person to get the comparatively younger appearance.

Skin is considered as the biggest organ of the human body and it is almost entirely exposed to the environment and sunlight, which potentially damage the skin texture and aggravate the untimely aging symptoms to be occurred in different regions, especially on the facial area. This unique and innovative scientific development has opened up the scopes of various uses of this artificially created skin, which can be used for various research purposes, testing of cosmetics and most importantly transplanting onto the human or other species.

It is the first of this kind of development that produces artificial, printed skin, by using the bioprinter, which will be introduced to the marketplace very soon for commercial and medical uses.

Conclusion

This innovative bio-printed skin is the result of the collaboration between extremely experienced scientists at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) and the BioDan Group, a famous bioengineering company, who have the long history and specialization in the field of regenerative medicine, especially focused on the skin texture.

The most important part of this printed skin is; the material of this skin is having the qualities of the skin structure, wherein the inner part is having the fibroblast, which produces collagen; the most crucial protein element that provides the elasticity, as well as, enhances the mechanical strength of the skin. This mechanically bio-printed skin is being processed and generated in the automated and standardized way, which is less expensive than the manual process.

Laboratories: looks like the high-tech of the future - III

Kilobots

Researchers at Harvard University have developed a technology that facilitates the testing of algorithms group on hundreds or thousands of tiny robots. Kilobots called, these robots the size of an insect moving on three legs, interacting and coordinating their actions as a team. A report from Harvard in June 2011 introduced a set of 25 robots performing different actions in a group, such as drilling, development training, and synchronization.