Robots Now Have Smart Skin That Can Feel Your Touch and Sense Proximity

We're here at AMD's Advancing AI conference with this brand new humanoid with something called smart skin, which I've never seen before. I'm about to get a demo. Let's learn how it works together. Meet Genie 01, the new humanoid robot from Italian company Generative Bionics. On its arms are two different kinds of sensors, which can feel touch and detect when something is nearby. These are time of flight sensors, which are constantly sending out invisible light and measuring the time it takes for that light to bounce back and return to the sensor. They can detect nearby people and objects before they're even touching the robot. So here, I'm I'm putting my hand near

the proximity sensor on the upper arm, and I'm going to move it out, and we're going to see just how far away I can get from the robot with it still sensing me. There's also a patch of black material on the robot's arm that feels kind of like a neoprene wet suit. That's where the smart skin is on this model, and it can tell exactly where the robot is being touched and how much pressure is being applied. All right, and now we're squeezing, on off, on off, on off. And you can also it shows whether I'm squeezing on the top or the bottom. You can see on screen that it's detecting the difference, and there's also the blue is darker where I'm pressing

harder and lighter where I'm pressing more gently. So the idea is that the smart skin and these proximity sensors will help people work more safely with the robots depending on whether they're in a hospital or an industrial setting doing some kind of manufacturing or logistics work. We see Genie 01 as a platform. It means modular mechanics and software from which we can derive application-specific humanoid robots for the different verticals. While some robot companies are working toward a more general-purpose humanoid robot, Generative Bionics plans to customize their robots for different use cases. In this version, the smart skin is on the robot's arm, but depending on the needs of future clients, the smart

skin could show up in different places to serve different functions. We are thinking for instance in the hospital, it's going to be really important to have the skin on the chest. And also on the forearm, because if elderly want to grab the robot, the robot has to feel the touch. Or if they want to hug the robot, the robot has to be capable of feeling this hug. The company is also utilizing AI not only in the robot's movements, but also in the design of the robot itself. We do not design the systems by human intervention, but we have basically AI modules that generate also physics, mechanics, and control at the same time. So, our modules, like our generative physical AI, takes into account the

customer KPIs, and then we generate for them a specific humanoid robot. The company says its target price for its robots are between 50 to 70,000 euros depending on their use case. So, right now we are evolving it towards the what we call the 1.1 Genie, and which is going to be ready by the end of the year. Because I've seen too many sci-fi movies, I also like to ask where is the emergency stop button on these robots just in case. Well, we still have the red button, but let me tell you that safety is going to be handled in human robotics and physical AI is an issue. If for instance a robot understands that it has to be has to shut down, the way it falls has to be

controlled. Because if you have a child in front of you, you have to somehow reserve the amount of computer that you need. And also you have to act electronically so that motion is going to be controlled. So, the red buttons are going to be there, but we're also working at the new standards in order to understand how these robots have to somehow go to sleep. Speaking of safety, you may notice the robot reacting to a hand near its proximity sensors or to someone touching its smart skin. Because we're at a conference with all these people around, these interactions are being triggered

remotely for safety reasons. I don't think I've ever seen a robot acting autonomously at a conference around people. Autonomous demos are usually conducted behind a physical barrier, and almost every interactive demo I've seen at events like this has been remotely operated. Perhaps someday we'll see robots autonomously moving around and interacting with strangers, but the technology isn't ready for that right now. But hey, maybe smart skin sensors will help robots get there. All right, thank you Gina 01. What do you think of Gina 01? Let us know down in the comments and subscribe for more stories that make you say, "What the future?"