Beijing, Jan. 7 (Xinhua) -- Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, have developed a new technology that allows underwater robots to have a "sense of touch" and reduce harm to Marine life when grabbing Marine debris.

Researchers recently published a paper in the journal Science Advances in the United States, they use the magnetoelastic effect, developed a soft, waterproof "artificial skin", can be tactile stimulation into magnetic field changes, and then converted into electrical signals for artificial intelligence system interpretation, so that underwater robots can have a "sense of touch".

Magnetoelastic effect refers to the phenomenon of magnetic changes in magnetic materials due to stress or strain.

Researchers connected the "artificial skin" to the robot arm, let the robot arm randomly grab sea snails, scallops, starfish and other Marine life samples as well as bottle caps, paper cups, plastic bottles and other Marine debris samples, found that "artificial skin" can help the robot arm identify these objects, classification accuracy of 95%.

The researchers said that this new technology can help the robot to recycle Marine garbage while reducing the damage to Marine life, and in the deep-sea biological sampling, seabed mining and other fields also have application potential, contribute to the sustainable development of Marine resources.

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