Wide-area Advanced Synthetic Skin with Enhanced Sensory Perception for Low-visibility Undersea Environments

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI), in collaboration with Michigan State University (MSU), proposes to design, fabricate and evaluate a wide-area synthetic skin device to enable tactile sensing of various shaped objects placed in low-visibility undersea environments. A multi-angular spatial sensing capability will be implemented to identify patterns and 3D objects. This will be possible by the use of a machine learning architecture, which will be embedded into the device. The synthetic skin measuring system with incorporated machine learning perception has the potential to significantly increase the effectiveness of underwater operations. Basic capabilities will be demonstrated during the Phase I effort, while an autonomous device will be demonstrated during Phase II.  Our ultimate goal is to develop a capability that will result in deliverable systems for Navy applications.