Researchers from Prof. Joohyung Kim’s KIMLAB (Kinetic Intelligent Machine LAB) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) have developed a low-cost, easy-to-reproduce “pneumatic skin” that gives robots a sense of touch.

The solution consists of a 3d-printed TPU structure, attached to the robot arm with magnets. Eleven of these pneumatic pads, each coupled with a Honeywell ABPDANT005 pressure sensor, are connected to a PCB. The PCB is in turn connected to a USB hub, which interfaces with a Teensy 4.0. The video below demonstrates the system in action, including detecting a human arm caught in the robot’s elbow joint, which halts operation.

PJRC forum member VoiceBotX has created VoiceBot, a second language fluency-builder in the form of a Teensy 4.1-powered robot.

Contained in the 3d-printed shell is a Teensy 4.1 and Audio Adaptor Board, as well as haptic motors and drivers, some extra RAM, and an 8×8 RGB LED matrix. Using Teensy’s Ethernet, or USB serial via Chrome, the bot transmits a stream of visemes (speech sounds) to a web site, while also displaying them on the matrix, resulting in a lipsync-like representation of speech audio.

OH! is a sculpture created by PJRC forum member brendanmatkin and the Tangible team, which controls the lights on the Telus World of Science’s geodesic dome.

Based on the Teensy 3.5, OH! is a 1:60 scale model of the building, covered with 240 sensors, and connected to its full-scale counterpart by an LTE router.

When the sensors are interacted with, the corresponding light on the “real” dome is illuminated with various animations, such as sparkles, bands, and waves. PCA9617 I2C bus repeaters connect the 240 sensors, with a WIZ820 network module providing Ethernet. The Teensy also outputs an OSC signal on the LAN for the remote laptop to turn into music via Pure Data. Each sensor features an ATtiny841 microcontroller, an LED, and an IR sensor. Marvel as the Vancouver public animates the skyline with their very own hands in the video below.