Sensitive Skin

The following sections are included:

• CONTENTS

• Foreword

• Executive Summary

The following sections are included:

• Machines in unstructured environments

• Sensitive Skin - a universal paradigm

• An impetus for information technology

• Societal needs addressed by Sensitive Skins

• Societal concerns

• The bottleneck is all-encompassing sensing

• Research issues
  • Skin material
  • Sensing devices
  • Signal/data processing

• Related research issues

• Workshop Agenda

The following sections are included:

• Materials
  • Introduction
    • Section members and section focus
    • System concept
    • Areas of discussion
  • Substrate/interconnect issues
    • Stretching and bending
    • Saran Wrap vs. Panty Hose Model vs. Soccer Ball Models
    • Research Plan for Substrates and Interconnects
  • Adding Sensing/Intelligence/Actuation
    • Introduction
    • Hybrid Approach
    • Direct Integration of Sensors and Intelligence with Substrate/Interconnect
    • Intelligent Fiber Approach
  • Umbrella Issues
  • Summary and enabling technologies

• Devices
  • Introduction
    • Section Members and Section Focus
    • Biological and Electronic Sensors - Similarities and Differences
    • Large-Area Electronics is Coming of Age
    • The Need for New Manufacturing Technology: Printing Active Electronics
  • Device Needs
    • Assumptions and Research Approach
    • Device Capabilities Sought for Sensitive Skin
    • Combining Rigidity and Flexibility
  • A Selection of Sensing Devices
    • Proximity Sensors
    • Touch and Pressure Sensors
    • Chemical and Biological Sensors
    • Noise in devices
  • Transistor Materials and Gate Delay
  • Device Density Achievable by Printing
  • On-Element Signal Processing: Bit Rate and Bandwidth
  • Conclusions
    • Sensor Devices
    • Device Fabrication Te
    • Bandwidth

• Signal Processing
  • Introduction
  • Fault Tolerance
  • Data Reduction
  • Data Processing
  • Questions
    • Questions for the Applications People
    • Questions for the Device People
  • A Running Example

• Applications
  • Introduction
  • Working Definition and Classification of Sensitive Skins
    • Working Definition
    • Classification of Sensitive Skins
  • Classes of Sensitive Skin
    • Human Skin or Wearable Skin
    • Sensitive Skin for Machines
    • Environmental Sensitive Skin
    • Actuated Sensitive Skin
  • Example Scenarios
    • Skin for Smart Floor (environmental sensitive skin)
    • Machine Skin for Personal Robots
    • Universal Smart Glove
• Common Research Needs for (Smart) Sensitive Skin for Articulated Structures

The following sections are included:

• Materials

• Devices

• Signal processing

• Applications

Sensitive skin devices represent an enabling technology that promises a whole generation of other novel technologies and of far-reaching applications not feasible today – from machine industry and defense to medicine and biology. This technology will become a new powerful tool in the hands of machine designers, allowing them to bring machine automation to unstructured areas and tasks that have resisted automation so far. The extent of the impact the sensitive skin technology will eventually have is hard to overemphasize. This new form of automation will have an especially dramatic effect on inherently unstructured tasks in the service industry (hospitals, nursing homes, offices, households, and senior citizens homes). Among non-service industries, areas of biggest impact will include the construction industry, agriculture, forestry, deep space, and ocean exploration…

Discussions at the Workshop identified the following main players in the development of the Sensitive Skin technology:

♦ Academia – universities involved today in research on MEMS, large-scale electronics, new substrate materials, new displays, electronic packaging, and all kind of sophisticated sensor arrays are likely to take part. The List of Participants in the Workshop shows a representative cross section of academic expertise.

♦ Government – federal agencies that promote high tech research will appear here, and very likely agencies whose domains will benefit directly from the introduction of sensitive skin technology: NSF, DARPA, ONR, AFOSR, DOE, NASA, NIH (see the List of Participants).

♦ Industry – the list of industrial participants at the Workshop provides a good indication of the possible breadth of industrial engagement. At the beginning industrial interest is likely to center at big corporations involved in novel plastic materials, novel electronics, wireless technology, and unconventional techniques for material management (Motorola, General Electric Co., DuPont Corp., Lucent Technologies, Xerox Corp.). A strong letter of support for this research supplied by the Motorola participant, Dr. Sanjar Ghaem, is representative in this regard.

As commercial Sensitive Skin devices become available, one can expect rapid formation of small start-up companies that will concentrate on commercializing novel applications of Sensitive Skin. In other words, Sensitive Skin will serve as a new "tool box" technology, with a huge diversity of potential applications to many different areas of human activity. This predestines Sensitive Skin to couple into the present ability of the U.S. to quickly industrialize new inventions via startup companies.

The following sections are included:

• Bibliography
  • Prototype robots with sensitive skin
  • Materials for Sensitive Skin
  • Devices
    • General
    • On-element analog to digital conversion
    • Proximity sensors
    • Electronic Devices on Plastic
    • Plasma Wave Electronics for Wireless Communications on Sensitive Skin

• Workshop Organizers

• Acknowledgements

• List of Participants

• Subject Index

• Appendix 1. Vladimir Lumelsky. The Sensitive Skin
  • Introduction
  • The Initiative
    • Sensing
    • Skin Material
    • Data Processing
    • Application-Related Topics

• Photographs from the Workshop

• Selected viewgraphs from technical presentations

• Bibliography