An incredibly dextrous robotic hand has been developed that is strong enough to crush a can, while also being delicate enough to use a pair of tweezers.
The device integrates all the components necessary for responsive movement, according to the engineers from Ajou University in Suwon, South Korea.
It is mounted on an existing commercial robotic arm, and can perform a wide variety of task, from grasping an egg and crushing a can, to using scissors.
The team say the hand has the ability to help in a range of fields, including in electronics by placing ever smaller computer chips on a circuit board with tweezers.
The device integrates all the components necessary for responsive movement, according to the engineers from Ajou University in Suwon, South Korea
It is mounted on an existing commercial robotic arm, and can perform a wide variety of tasks – from grasping an egg, and crushing a can, to using scissors
Previous robotic hands required a range of additional parts to make them either highly dextrous or very strong, but this new South Korean hand can do both.
Earlier hands also required a dedicated arm, but the team have designed this in a way that it can be integrated into existing, commercially available systems.
‘Interpreting the extremely complex functioning of the human hand remains an unresolved challenge in the field of robotics,’ the authors wrote.
‘In particular, the movement of the human hand involves considerably high dexterity levels, suitable for performing a wide variety of tasks requiring a strong gripping force ranging from fine object grasping to tool manipulation.’
Out of the 206 bones in the human body, 54 bones are in the hands, and the muscle structure driving them is extremely complex.
The fingertip also has ‘tactile corpuscles’, which enable tactile sensations when picking up items or performing tasks, with one every 1 mm.
To implement these functions using robots, many dexterous human-like robotic hands have been developed, but each style has its limitations – whether it be difficulty integrating to existing arms, or a lack of freedom of movement.
To implement these functions using robots, many dexterous human-like robotic hands have been developed, but each style has its limitations – whether it be difficulty integrating to existing arms, or a lack of freedom of movement.
Out of the 206 bones in the human body, 54 bones are in the hands, and the muscle structure driving them is also extremely complex
The Korean team analysed existing robotic hands, their positive and negative features, and determined core criteria for their new hand.
‘We concluded that it is important to have the following advantageous features in a robotic hand: dexterity, fingertip forces, controllability, robustness, low cost, low maintenance, and compactness,’ they wrote.
Uikyum Kim and colleagues developed the robotic hand, called ILDA (integrated linkage-driven dexterous anthropomorphic), with 20 joints.
Earlier hands required a dedicated arm, but the team have designed this in a way that it can be integrated into existing, commercially available systems
The Korean team analysed existing hands, their positive and negative features, and determined core criteria for their new hand
These joints allow 15 degrees of freedom of movement, and the hand comes with a fingertip that can exert a force of 34 Newtons, while still being delicate enough to cut a piece of paper with scissors.
It weighs less than 2.4lb and is so compact it measures just eight and a half inches.
All of the parts are integrated into the hand, which means it can be attached to existing robotic arms without additional parts, such as forearms.
In a series of experiments, the authors demonstrated that the hand was capable of picking up objects of various shapes, grasping strongly enough to crush cans, or delicately enough to hold an egg.
These joints allow 15 degrees of freedom of movement, and the hand comes with a fingertip that can exert a force of 34 Newtons – while still being delicate enough to cut a piece of paper with scissors
All of the parts are integrated into the hand, which means it can be attached to existing robotic arms without additional parts, such as forearms
The hand was also capable of cutting paper with scissors and picking up small objects using tweezers, which is a significant achievement for a robotic hand.
‘The grasping ability of the ILDA was confirmed when it squeezed the aluminium can and delicately grasped the egg,’ the authors wrote.
‘In addition, the hand could perform different types of grasping according to the shapes of various objects. Scissors and tweezers are used to determine the possibility of manipulating tools used in everyday life.’
The findings have been published in the journal Nature Communications.