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Untangle Your Hair With Help From Robots


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The Robowig system at work taming tangles.

Scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and the Soft Math Lab at Harvard University have developed a robotic arm setup with a sensorized soft brush and camera that allows the system

Credit: MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Harvard University's Soft Math Lab teamed up to develop a robotic arm setup that can comb tangled hair.

"RoboWig" features a sensorized soft brush equipped with a camera to assess curliness, so the system can adapt to the degree of hair tangling it encounters.

CSAIL's Josie Hughes said, "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."

Tests on wigs of various hair styles and hair types helped determine appropriate brushing lengths, taking into consideration the number of entanglements and pain levels.

From MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory
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Abstracts Copyright © 2021 SmithBucklin, Washington, DC, USA


 

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