CNP Seminar // Benjamin Tee - Scaling Neuromorphic Electronic Skins

Neuromorphic engineering¹ aims to mimic the high performance and efficiency of the human senses. Coupled with the advancements in neuroprosthetics^2,3, neuromorphic electronic skins can enable intuitive and lifelike use of replacement limbs and autonomous robots often depicted in science fiction movies. My talk will discuss a brief history of somatosensory science and how advancements in materials, electronics and signal processing can enable the next generation of prosthetics, robots and human-machine interfaces. Some of the recent advances in our group aims to address several gaps in the translation of electronic skins to real-world use. Some of the challenges we aim to tackle include electro-mechanical designs of sensors⁴, electrodes and repairability⁵ of the system. Our goal is to enable large area and density/number scaling of skin like devices to allow machines to safely and effectively work with humans, whether in an implanted device such as a prosthetic or as a standalone robot⁶. 


References

1.        Mead, C. Neuromorphic Electronic Systems. Proceedings - IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems vol. 78 1629 (1990).
2.        D’Anna, E. et al. A closed-loop hand prosthesis with simultaneous intraneural tactile and position feedback. Sci. Robot. 4, eaau8892 (2019).
3.        Li, P., Anwar Ali, H. P., Cheng, W., Yang, J. & Tee, B. C. K. Bioinspired Prosthetic Interfaces. Adv. Mater. Technol. n/a, 1900856 (2020).
4.        Guo, H. et al. Artificially innervated self-healing foams as synthetic piezo-impedance sensor skins. Nat. Commun. 11, 5747 (2020).
5.        Tan, Y. J., Susanto, G. J., Anwar Ali, H. P. & Tee, B. C. K. Progress and Roadmap for Intelligent Self-Healing Materials in Autonomous Robotics. Adv. Mater. 33, 2002800 (2021).
6.        Lee, W. W. et al. A neuro-inspired artificial peripheral nervous system for scalable electronic skins. Sci. Robot. 4, eaax2198 (2019).

Biography

Dr. Benjamin C.K. Tee is Associate Professor in Materials Science and Engineering Department at the National University of Singapore (NUS). He is a recipient of the National Research Foundation Fellowship and He obtained his PhD at Stanford University. He has developed, patented and commercializing several award-winning electronic skin sensor technologies. He is an MIT TR35 Innovator (Global) in 2015 and listed as World Economic Forum’s Young Scientist of the year in 2019. He was featured by CNN International as one of their Tomorrow’s Hero series and by Channel News Asia International in the ASEAN’s Next Generation Leaders documentary series. His leads his research group: Sensors.AI to develop technologies at the cutting edge of materials science, mechanics, electronics and biology, with a focus on sensitive electronic skins that has tremendous potential to advance global healthcare technologies in an increasingly Artificial Intelligence (AI) era. He can be found on www.benjamintee.com