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Materials science

A sense for touch

Nature volume 480, pages 189–190 (2011)Cite this article

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Will a sense of touch similar to that of humans ever be developed in robots? Results on the physics of friction for fingerprint-like ridges sliding across textured surfaces may lead the way to tactile robotic sensors.

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Figure 1: The friction force.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. C. Mathew Mate is at the Hitachi San Jose Research Center, San Jose, California 95135, USA.,

    C. Mathew Mate

  2. Robert W. Carpick is in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19104, USA.,

    Robert W. Carpick

Authors
  1. C. Mathew Mate
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  2. Robert W. Carpick
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Correspondence to C. Mathew Mate or Robert W. Carpick.

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Mate, C., Carpick, R. A sense for touch. Nature 480, 189–190 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/480189a

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