• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Subscribe
  • Your Membership
    • Edit Your Profile
  • Services
    • Advertising
    • Case studies
    • Design
    • Email marketing
    • Lead generation
    • Magazine
    • Press releases
    • Publishing
    • Sponsored posts
    • Webcasting
    • Webinars
    • White papers
    • Writing
  • Shop
    • My Account
    • Cart
  • About
    • Contact
    • Privacy
    • Terms of use
  • Events

Robotics & Automation News

Market trends and business perspectives

  • News
  • Features
  • Video
  • Webinars
  • White papers
  • Press releases
  • Featured companies
    • AMD Xilinx
    • BlueBotics
    • Elite Robot
    • RGo Robotics
    • SICK Sensor Intelligence
    • Vicor Power

MIT unveils robot that can brush your hair

April 30, 2021 by Sam Francis Leave a Comment

MIT has unveiled a robot that can brush your hair for you as you can’t be bothered because this is the 10,000th lockdown and no one has seen you for decades and your hair hasn’t even seen the light of day for at least a year. (See video below.)

MIT says the robotic arm is equipped with a hairbrush helps with brushing tasks and could be “an asset in assistive care settings”.

With rapidly growing demands on health care systems, nurses typically spend 18 to 40 percent of their time performing direct patient care tasks, oftentimes for many patients and with little time to spare. Personal care robots that brush your hair could provide substantial help and relief.

This may seem like a truly radical form of “self-care”, but crafty robots for things like shaving, hair washing, and make-up are not new.

In 2011, the tech giant Panasonic developed a robot that could wash, massage, and even blow dry hair, explicitly designed to help support “safe and comfortable living of the elderly and people with limited mobility, while reducing the burden of caregivers.”

Hair combing bots, however, proved to be less explored, leading scientists from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the Soft Math Lab at Harvard University to develop a robotic arm setup with a sensorized soft brush, equipped with a camera that helps the arm “see” and assess curliness, to let the system plan a delicate and time-efficient brush-out.

Their control strategy is adaptive to the degree of tangling in the fiber bunch, and they put “RoboWig” to the test by brushing wigs ranging from straight to very curly hair.

While the hardware set-up of “RoboWig” looks futuristic and shiny, the underlying model of the hair fibers is what makes it tick.

CSAIL postdoc Josie Hughes and her team’s approach examined entangled soft fiber bundles as sets of entwined double helices – think classic DNA strands.

This level of granularity provided key insights into mathematical models and control systems for manipulating bundles of soft fibers, with a wide range of applications in the textile industry, animal care, and other fibrous systems.

RoboWig could also potentially assist with, in pure “Lady and the Tramp” fashion, efficiently manipulating spaghetti.

Hughes, the lead author on a paper about RoboWig, says: “By developing a model of tangled fibers, we understand from a model-based perspective how hairs must be entangled: starting from the bottom and slowly working the way up to prevent ‘jamming’ of the fibers.

“This is something everyone who has brushed hair has learned from experience, but is now something we can demonstrate through a model, and use to inform a robot.”

Split ends? Who cares?

This task at hand is a tangled one. Every head of hair is different, and the intricate interplay between hairs when combing can easily lead to knots. What’s more, if the incorrect brushing strategy is used, the process can be very painful and damaging to the hair.

Previous research in the brushing domain has mostly been on the mechanical, dynamic and visual properties of hair, as opposed to RoboWig’s refined focus on tangling and combing behavior.

To brush and manipulate the hair, the researchers added a soft-bristled sensorized brush to the robot arm, to allow forces during brushing to be measured.

They combined this setup with something called a “closed-loop control system”, which takes feedback from an output and automatically performs an action without human intervention.

This created “force feedback” from the brush – a control method that lets the user feel what the device is doing – so the length of the stroke could be optimized to take into account both the potential “pain”, and time taken to brush.

Initial tests preserved the human head – for now – and instead were done on a number of wigs of various hair styles and types.

The model provided insight into the behaviors of the combing, related to the number of entanglements, and how those could be efficiently and effectively brushed out by choosing appropriate brushing lengths. For example, for curlier hair, the pain cost would dominate, so shorter brush lengths were optimal.

The team wants to eventually perform more realistic experiments on humans, to better understand the performance of the robot with respect to their experience of pain – a metric that is obviously highly subjective, as one person’s “two” could be another’s “eight”.

“To allow robots to extend their task solving abilities to more complex tasks such as hairbrushing, we need not only novel safe hardware, but also an understanding of the complex behavior of the soft hair and tangled fibers,” says Hughes.

“In addition to hair brushing, the insights provided by our approach could be applied to brushing of fibers for textiles, or animal fibers.”

Hughes wrote the paper alongside Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences PhD students Thomas Bolton Plumb-Reyes and Nicholas Charles, professor L. Mahadevan of the Soft Math Lab at Harvard University, and MIT professor and CSAIL director Daniela Rus.

They presented the paper virtually at the IEEE Conference on Soft Robotics (RoboSoft) earlier this month.

The project was co-supported by the NSF Emerging Frontiers in Research and Innovation program between MIT CSAIL and the Soft Math Lab at Harvard.

Main image: A robotic arm setup is equipped with a sensorized soft brush and aided by a camera to study the complex nature of manipulating and brushing of hair fibers.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Share this:

  • Print
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Twitter
  • Tumblr
  • Pinterest
  • Skype
  • WhatsApp
  • Telegram
  • Pocket

You might also like…

Filed Under: Health, News Tagged With: brush, brushing, care, fibers, hair, mit, robot, robowig, soft

Join the Robotics & Automation News community

Reader Interactions

You must log in to post a comment.

Primary Sidebar

Latest articles

  • Otto Motors launches new ‘mid-sized’ autonomous mobile robot
  • SGS introduces ‘cutting-edge testing protocol’ for robots checking furniture drawer slides
  • Europalco buys two robots from Kuka to add ‘wow factor’ to shows
  • Kivnon to launch new version of its forklift AGV at Advanced Factories Expo
  • Comau developing new mobile robot solution for three EU projects
  • What is the cost of hiring a Vue.JS developer?
  • Palletizing Systems and Robots
  • DONCEN MOTOR: Flat BLDC Motor is the Future Trend of the Robot
  • Top Benefits of Using Automation in Your Business
  • The Future of Colocation Hosting and How it is Evolving to Meet Changing Business Needs

Most Read

  • Top 20 electric vehicle charging station companies
    Top 20 electric vehicle charging station companies
  • Difference Between Three-Phase and Single-Phase Power
    Difference Between Three-Phase and Single-Phase Power
  • Scientists have found more water in space than they ever knew possible
    Scientists have found more water in space than they ever knew possible
  • Why is My Car Key Stuck in the Ignition?
    Why is My Car Key Stuck in the Ignition?
  • How to Know if Your iPhone is Being Tracked? Check This!
    How to Know if Your iPhone is Being Tracked? Check This!
  • Top 20 programmable logic controller manufacturers
    Top 20 programmable logic controller manufacturers
  • Why is Money Important in Our Lives?
    Why is Money Important in Our Lives?
  • What You Need to Know About Fixing an Engine Misfire
    What You Need to Know About Fixing an Engine Misfire
  • Hengbot unveils ‘world’s first robotic dog with musculoskeletal limbs’
    Hengbot unveils ‘world’s first robotic dog with musculoskeletal limbs’
  • Comau developing new mobile robot solution for three EU projects
    Comau developing new mobile robot solution for three EU projects

Overused words

ai applications automated automation automotive autonomous business companies company control customers data design development digital electric global industrial industry logistics machine manufacturing market mobile operations platform process production robot robotic robotics robots safety software solution solutions system systems technologies technology time vehicle vehicles warehouse work

Secondary Sidebar

Latest news

  • Otto Motors launches new ‘mid-sized’ autonomous mobile robot
  • SGS introduces ‘cutting-edge testing protocol’ for robots checking furniture drawer slides
  • Europalco buys two robots from Kuka to add ‘wow factor’ to shows
  • Kivnon to launch new version of its forklift AGV at Advanced Factories Expo
  • Comau developing new mobile robot solution for three EU projects
  • What is the cost of hiring a Vue.JS developer?
  • Palletizing Systems and Robots
  • DONCEN MOTOR: Flat BLDC Motor is the Future Trend of the Robot
  • Top Benefits of Using Automation in Your Business
  • The Future of Colocation Hosting and How it is Evolving to Meet Changing Business Needs

Footer

We are…

Robotics and Automation News was established in May, 2015, and is now one of the most widely-read websites in its category.

Please consider supporting us by becoming a paying subscriber, or through advertising and sponsorships, or by purchasing products and services through our shop – or a combination of all of the above.

Thank you.

Independent

Archivists

April 2021
M T W T F S S
 1234
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  
« Mar   May »

Complex

Old-skool

This website and its associated magazine, and weekly newsletter, are all produced by a small team of experienced journalists and media professionals.

If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to contact us at any of the email addresses on our contact page.

We’d be happy to hear from you, and will always reply as soon as possible.

Future-facing

Free, fair and legal

We support the principles of net neutrality and equal opportunities.

Member of The Internet Defense League

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT