Robotic hand sans fingers still manages to grip objects with ease

No robotic equipment can be a 100% replacement for body parts lost in the most unfortunate circumstances. Robots can partially restore physical normalcy however their mechanical action fails to transform or merge into something completely natural. For example robotic fingers whose clumsy action either makes it too hard to grip an object or fail to grab it at all. To address such issues and make robotics come as near as possible to the natural scientists at the University of Chicago in Illinois have developed a robotic hand sans the driveling fingers.

robotic hand

robotic hand 1

This robotic hand which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences is basically a thin rubber sack filled with coffee grains or small glass spheres. As when it comes in contact with the object, a small pipe sucks air from the sack, causing it to contract and mold to the object's shape. Even though the contraction is just a percentage of original volume it is enough to grab most of the objects. According to the scientists the hand works best on hard, dry, geometrically complex objects like screwdrivers and toy jacks.

Via: ScienceMag