Many problems must be solved before the robot enters the home, including sensors, motors, power supplies, and artificial intelligence. Below we introduce the progress of these technical fields.

　　Robot sensor

　　In the field of industrial control, sensors are ubiquitous and are often designed for the application of equipment such as temperature, pressure, pH and even images. The precise sensing environment is the foundation of a universal robot that contains a variety of sensors that can sense pressure, temperature and object contact. This sensor network has millions of sensors. At present, many studies on skin materials have been conducted. Artificial skin should be self-healing, sensing pressure and temperature, and Peratech (www.peratech.com) developed a new material based on a QuantumTunnelingComposite (QTC) patented technology that mixes nano-conductor materials in viscose. The pressure was detected and the material was already commercially available.

　　Japanese researchers have built sensor arrays that sense not only touch but also temperature. Based on this technology, more sensors are added, and even light and sound can be perceived.

     Robot motor

      No matter whether it is a linear or rotating motor, there are weight, size and mechanical conversion efficiency problems in robotic applications. Rotating motors are useful in humanoid robots. Of course, muscle motors are a better choice, or some kind of material that induces an electric field. Humans have 640 muscles in pair with a length of about 20%-40% and a speed of about 20% per second.

      Researchers at the University of Texas have discovered a synthetic muscle material made from carbon nanotube aerogel sheets that can stretch 220% at 30,000% per second! At the same time, it has a tensile strength exceeding steel and can be used at extreme temperatures (-196~1538 °C). Once this technology is applied to robots, robots and prosthetics will be very agile and strong.

     Robot brain

     Humans can easily cross the street without being hit by a car. The amount of computation in this process is quite large, and people can do it in an unconscious state. Let the robot complete this action, and there are still many problems to be solved. Today's silicon technology has many physical limitations, and next-generation digital processing will use quantum devices that will perform a lot of computations in a single device and reduce power consumption.

  Electricity supply

 The expected humanoid robot must be able to operate continuously for many hours, and today's battery technology is not enough to support current consumption. Current motors and computers require hundreds of watts of power and the battery will run out quickly. Research on electric vehicles will help solve this problem.

With the development of new technologies, many technical problems will be overcome, and the speed of progress may surprise us.