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New Artificial Skin For Robots Allows Them To Feel Things
A groundbreaking new development from a Caltech researcher means that robots will soon be able to “feel” their surroundings, with sensations relayed back to human operators.
Caltech assistant professor of medical engineering, Wei Gao, has developed a new platform for robots and their operators known as M-Bot. When it hits the mainstream, the technology will allow humans to control robots more precisely and help protect them in hostile environments.
The platform is based around an artificial skin that effectively gives robots a sense of touch. The newly developed tool also uses machine learning and forearm sensors to allow human users to control robots with their own movements while receiving delicate haptic feedback through their skin.
The synthetic skin is composed of a gelatinous hydrogel and makes robot fingertips function much like our own. Inside the gel, layers of tiny micrometer sensors — applied similarly to Inkjet printing — detect and report touch through very gentle electrical stimulation. For example, if a robotic hand picked up an egg too firmly, the artificial skin sensors would give feedback to the human operator on the sensation of the shell being crushed.
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Wei Gao and his Caltech team hope the system will eventually find applications in everything from agriculture and environmental protection to security. The developers also note that robot operators will be able to “feel” their surroundings, including sensing how much fertilizer or pesticide is being applied to crops or whether suspicious bags contain traces of explosives.
Abdulmotaleb El Saddik, Professor of Computer Vision at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, has noted that the new development offers even more applications and possibilities: “The ability to physically feel the touch, including handshakes and shoulder patting, could contribute to creating a sense of connection and empathy, enhancing the quality of interactions, particularly for the elderly and people living at a distance or those who are in space [such as] astronauts connecting with their family and children”.
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Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.
Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.
The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.
Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc
— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026
“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.
Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.
Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget
The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.
Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.
Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon
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