{"id":639766,"date":"2026-08-16T07:02:13","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T07:02:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/639766\/"},"modified":"2026-08-16T07:02:13","modified_gmt":"2026-08-16T07:02:13","slug":"chinas-electric-eel-sensor-allows-robots-to-feel-an-object-without-touching-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/639766\/","title":{"rendered":"China\u2019s \u2018electric eel\u2019 sensor allows robots to feel an object without touching it"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Electric eels hunt in pitch-black, murky waters by generating electric fields around their bodies. Now, Chinese scientists have mimicked this natural radar, giving <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/topics\/robotics?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">robots<\/a> the ability to \u201cfeel\u201d objects without making physical contact.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWe want the machine to sense an approaching target \u2013 distinguish its material and surface condition \u2013 before any physical contact,\u201d said Zhang Weiqiang, a professor at Xidian University, in a video interview last week.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Their work was published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Advanced Materials.<\/p>\n<p>The team drew inspiration from the <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/science\/article\/3350834\/chinese-scientists-replicate-eels-6000km-breeding-journey-inside-research-pool?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">eel\u2019s locating system<\/a>. The hunter generates an electric field around itself and reads distortions in that field caused by nearby objects. The researchers borrowed the same logic \u2013 build a field, detect disturbances and extract information.The sensor is made of a specially treated fluoropolymer that acts like a tiny static battery. Once charged, it keeps its charge for a long time, creating a <a target=\"_self\" class=\"e1yy41x40 ef9u0v01 css-1ankfgb ecgc78b0\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/china\/science\/article\/3355103\/china-conducts-test-flight-giant-coil-array-can-it-detect-nuclear-submarines?module=inline&amp;pgtype=article\" title=\"\" data-qa=\"BaseLink-renderAnchor-StyledAnchor\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">steady electric field<\/a> around it \u2013 like an invisible spider\u2019s web.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cWhen an object draws near, the sensor picks up changes in the field and from those changes, it can infer the object\u2019s electrical conductivity, dielectric properties and geometric shape,\u201d Zhang said.<\/p>\n<p>US bans imports of new Chinese robots and power inverters in latest tech crackdown<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Electric eels hunt in pitch-black, murky waters by generating electric fields around their bodies. Now, Chinese scientists have&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639767,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[77],"tags":[18266,2625,18,201605,270648,157475,19,17,270644,270646,133,270647,169879,270645],"class_list":["post-639766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-advanced-materials","tag-chinese-scientists","tag-eire","tag-electric-eels","tag-equipment-inspection","tag-human-robot-interaction","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-non-contact-detection","tag-robot-manufacturing","tag-science","tag-space-robot-operations","tag-xidian-university","tag-zhang-weiqiang"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117103909184371170","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}