Q&A: Robots can't feel, but novel sensors could change that

A research team, including Huanyu "Larry" Cheng, James L. Henderson Jr. Memorial Associate Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics at Penn State, is using pressure sensors—tiny devices, roughly the size of a paperclip, that can measure the force applied over an area—to design a highly sensitive electronic "skin" to use alongside robots and prosthetic limbs.