Small, flexible and affordable, the new “touch” sensing technology from KAUST researchers Ahmed Alfadhel (Inset) and Professor Jürgen Kosel is anticipated to have many innovative applications.

Molouk Y. Ba-Isa

Saudi Gazette

 

On Tuesday, Saudi Gazette caught up with Ahmed Alfadhel in Zadar, Croatia. It had just been announced that he had won the award for the “Best Research Paper” at the 2015 IEEE Sensors Applications Symposium for his research on artificial skin. A PhD candidate in Electrical Engineering, Alfadhel is part of the Sensing, Magnetism and Microsystems (SMM) research group at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). His research is supervised by Jürgen Kosel, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering at KAUST.



Alfadhel and Kosel’s paper is titled, “Magnetic Micropillar Sensors for Force Sensing.” It’s a complicated topic, which essentially comes down to the two scientists using nanotechnology to recreate the sense of touch in a flexible, artificial skin.  



“I started to investigate the different solutions that nature developed for the sense of touch,” Alfadhel said. “Animals such as crickets and fish are provided with incredible mechanosensorial skins made of millions of microscale hair-like cilia that allow them to sense the slightest vibration and touch, even those as nearly imperceptible as the landing of a butterfly.”



According to Kosel, at present, worldwide there are numerous research projects underway to develop artificial skins and touch sensors, but achieving success in this area is far from straightforward. Unlike other technologies under investigation, the KAUST team’s innovation has the potential to overcome most of the challenges.

  

“We have developed a novel sensing approach which is magnetic-based. This is different than current technologies,” said Alfadhel.



In nature, cilia are slender, often microscopic, hair-like structures. Insects and flowers may have visible cilia sticking out from their surfaces, and nearly every cell in the human body has microscopic cilia. In their research Alfadhel and Kosel, fabricated an array of magnetic cilia over a magnetic field sensing element able to detect the slightest deflection (movement) of the cilia exposed to an external force. The magnetic cilia along with the sensing element were then realized on a polymeric surface that created a stable, flexible platform for use. The artificial skin design is a progression of Alfadhel’s previous work about artificial cilia flow sensors, published in the journal, “Lab on Chip” (https://doi.org/10.1039/C4LC00821A).



“What’s really important too about our artificial skin design is that it can be combined with wireless technology to wirelessly transmit data from the artificial skin to a monitoring application in a smartphone or computer system,” explained Alfadhel. “Our artificial skin has high sensitivity, the modules operate with very low power consumption and since it’s very elastic, it can conform to any surface.”



A patent application has already been filed for the new sensing technology. In terms of commercialization, Alfadhel stated that the artificial skin is expected to be very affordable to create since it’s made from organic material and doesn’t require a cleanroom environment to manufacture. He sees many applications for the technology, which can function from a size as small as two by two millimeters. It could allow robots to have the sense of touch in either wet or dry environments. The technology could be incorporated in surgical tools, becoming an extension of the physician’s hand. The artificial skin could be used in monitoring situations from healthcare to security or be placed on the outside of protective gear, such as gloves. It could even provide the sensitivity missing in prosthetics, to enable people with artificial arms or legs to “feel” the world around them again.



“Every day I imagine new uses for our ‘touch’ sensing technology,” said Alfadhel. “I hope to finish my PhD by the end of this year and then devote myself full-time to work on taking these sensors and our new material out of the lab and into practical situations where great benefit may be realized.”