Robotic Hands Grip Without Fingers 105
sciencehabit writes "Physicists have designed a robotic hand that doesn't have fingers, yet can still serve drinks and draw pictures. The hand is a thin, rubber sack filled with coffee grains or small glass spheres. When it comes into contact with an object, a small pipe sucks air from the sack, causing it to contract and mold to the object's shape. As long as the gripper can fold about one-fourth of the object's surface, it can pick up just about any shape thrown in its path. The article includes a video of the hand in action."
Cornelius (Score:3, Funny)
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That's quite a neat idea for an universal gripping device. However, fingers do more than gripping, and I doubt this robotic hand would be able to be modified easily to do more than gripping. Though there is a possibility - a truly morphing hand that can assume almost any shape. Although I believe this is a long long way from now. A hand with fingers is capable of more than this one. Cool invention nevertheless.
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Maybe robots could have multiple hands -- this one on the left for gripping things, and one on the right with one or more fingers for various actuating tasks. Voila! Pump-action shotguns and robots, what could be better...
Seriously, though, depends what you want your robot to do. If you're after some sort of domestic servant to clear the table, wash dishes (i.e. load dishes into that purpose-built dishwashing robot you already have), and maybe cook food, there's not a whole lot besides gripping going on. If
Re:Cornelius (Score:4, Funny)
So if you wanted a multi-purpose robot, you'd have three hands: on the "one" hand you'd have a single-purpose attachement, on the "other" hand you'd have fingers for manipulating things which didn't have a matching attachment, and then you'd have the "gripping" hand...
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(Ruining the joke by trying to look like part of the "in" crowd)
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Wake up and smell the marbles (Score:3, Funny)
...can still serve drinks...filled with coffee grains or small glass spheres.
I think I'll pass...I'd rather have a barista who doesn't confuse coffee with marbles.
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When you find one can you please let me know?
Coffee shops here have trouble repeating my order, let alone serving it.
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coffee shops around here look at me weird when I order "coffee, black no cream/sugar". I have found that this seems to be one of the easier drinks for them to make as i seem to get it 99.9% of the time.
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I have trouble explaining that I want coffee flavoured coffee, not vanilla or pumpkin or whatever else they're trying to sell.
Dennis Leary On Coffee Flavored Coffee (Score:2)
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The Future is Here (Score:2, Funny)
Oh shit, it drew a square!
Lost an arm? (Score:3, Funny)
Having a moldable hand that could hold a fork or swipe a credit card could drastically improve the quality of life for the tens of thousands of patients in the United States who have lost an arm.
Why can't they use their other arm?
Re:Lost an arm? (Score:4, Funny)
They're not ambidextrous, you insensitive clod!
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What happens when they need to watch porn?
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So thats how... (Score:3, Insightful)
The Daleks built an empire armed with a zap gun and a plunger...
New Obligatory (Score:1)
Big Bang Theory - Howard's Robot Arm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6Us9jIPwMI [youtube.com]
The future of robotics (Score:2, Funny)
"Physicists have designed a robotic hand that ... can ... serve drinks"
The future of robotics is bright indeed.
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Well, yeah [technovelgy.com]...
Well there go my dreams. (Score:1)
No more fantasies about robotic hand-jobs in the future now.
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"No more fantasies about robotic hand-jobs in the future now."
It WOULD, however, make a magnificent penis implant.
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Novel and cool (Score:5, Insightful)
The real advances toward powered flight were when we stopped trying to imitate nature and go in a different direction.
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and yet we are now trying to go back towards nature with wing morphing, and those flapping drones and such.
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Given that aircraft with flapping wings would probably be difficult to fly, fixed wing aircraft were obviously the easiest way to go, especially with the technology of the time.
The technology of the time was unsuitable because of materials technology, we couldn't make anything with remotely the same characteristics as a feathered wing. Today we could, but it would be heinously expensive.
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Ironically, I was just reading today that the wright brothers developed their innovative control systems after observing that birds pitch the angle of their wings to control their flight.
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OP uses air-planes as an example of success by deviating from nature. In fact, the opposite is true: the first practical flying machine was developed by mimicking nature.
I suspect your post is a boiler plate response to any use of the word 'irony,' with no actual understanding of what the word means. You know, like rain, on your wedding day.
Inspired by South Park? (Score:2)
The working model looks a lot like the hands they draw for Cartman
Chibis in general (Score:2)
new robot hand overload types! (Score:2)
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That's what they invented Dvorak for....
Old question now answered (Score:2)
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Vac man? (Score:2, Informative)
Vac man [io9.com]! Is that you?
Killer robots (Score:2)
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No fingers no trigger pulling action... not exactly a great killer robot,
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An excerpt from... (Score:4, Funny)
An excerpt from an Investors Presentation...
Presenter: So, as you can see, this technology is leaps and bounds more sophisticated then the current technology. The advantages for amputees cannot be overstated, the device allows for the easy grasp of such items as food utensils, telephones in time of emergenc...
Investor: Excuse me. A question. Would an amputee be able to open a wallet?
Presenter: Well...I, ummm. I think that might be, well, a bit difficult as the tech stands, in it's current form...but..
Investor: What about a credit card? Could they swipe a credit card? Could they do that?
Presenter: *sigh* Yes...I suppose they could swipe a credit card. I think that would be possible...yes.
Investor: How about mortgage documents? Can they hold a pen?
Daleks (Score:1)
It still can't love (Score:1)
It can't do everything (Score:2)
For example, how well would it deal cards?
Still, quite impressive technology.
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It wouldn't deal with cards unless it could grip them by the end. It also can't deal with objects larger than about half it's size. From the original paper:
The only objects that could not be gripped were those in which the gripper membrane could not reach sufficiently around the sides, e.g., for hemispheres larger than about half the size of the gripper or for thin disks lying flat, or for very soft objects like cotton balls.
Katamari Damacy (Score:2, Funny)
Now we know what the center of that Katamari is.
It's a vacuum picker (Score:3, Interesting)
This is very clever. Vacuum pickers have been around for most of a century; they first appeared for paper handling in printing presses But they're usually flat, or at best, they have a foam or sponge front, so they can deal with some irregularities in the object being lifted. This is the first one I've seen that can grip around something. The clever part is that the flexible vacuum bag is filled with small objects that keep the bag size almost constant even when vacuum is applied. In operation, I presume it is used by pushing the gripper into wrapping around the object.
The usual vacuum picker problems apply. If only part of the bag (which has a pattern of small holes) is in contact with the object, the rest of the bag leaks. So the vacuum system has to extract a lot of wasted air to keep the pressure inside the system low. This limits the strength of the grip. It's also going to be noisy, probably about as noisy as the business end of a vacuum cleaner.
This definitely has applications in industrial automation where soft objects are being handled. It may be useful for fruit picking and clothing assembly, which are still too labor-intensive.
Re:It's a vacuum picker (Score:5, Informative)
It's not actually a vacuum picker: the gripping comes mostly from the change between unpacked and tightly packed granules inside the bag, somewhat like a non-Newtonian fluid. The idea is that the bag forms around an edge or partial circumference and then tightens enough to pick it up. The original paper's abstract [pnas.org] describes it better than the sciencemag article about it:
Individual fingers are replaced by a single mass of granular material that, when pressed onto a target object, flows around it and conforms to its shape. Upon application of a vacuum the granular material contracts and hardens quickly to pinch and hold the object without requiring sensory feedback. We find that volume changes of less than 0.5% suffice to grip objects reliably and hold them with forces exceeding many times their weight. We show that the operating principle is the ability of granular materials to transition between an unjammed, deformable state and a jammed state with solid-like rigidity.
There is sometimes an additional suction force assisting the gripper, but this is a suction-cup type action, not a vacuum pump action. The involved forces, from page two of the paper:
We find that this strength is due to three mechanisms, all controlled by jamming, that can contribute to the gripping process: geometric constraints from interlocking between gripper and object surfaces, static friction from normal stresses at contact, and an additional suction effect, if the gripper membrane can seal off a portion of the object’s surface.
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If people are interested in the state of the art in industrial automation, they should watch this video [youtube.com]. It's a demo reel for ABB FlexPicker robots, used for food processing --- the sequence of a set of robots carefully arranging sausages on a conveyor belt into rows for packaging is particularly impressive. They seem to use a combination of vacuum picking and conventional manipulators depending on the foodstuff (each production line is customised, of course).
There's lots of other ABB robotics videos, all
ouch! (Score:1)
That looks like it would pinch and hurt if a male tried to use it for ... oh never mind.
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Concave and Convex...
Oh nevermind.
--
Once the Daleks took the plunge, the rest was inevitable.
Cool.... but not as versatile as digits. (Score:2)
While this is fine for many types of many types of solid objects, it wouldn't work so well for picking up porous things like cloth, or almost anything organic such as plants or animals.
Can it even pick up a potato chip without breaking it?
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It cartainly cannot pick a nose... so that robot better not get a virus.
First thought Dalek hand. (Score:1)
Obligatory Howard Reference (Score:2)
Howard's Mom, 'Howard, I'm going to the store. Which peas should I get to go with the brisket!"
Howard, "Not NOW Mom! I'm BUSY!"
Howard's, Mom, "Just what's so IMPORTANT Mr. Smarty Pants that you have to spend all day playing video games in your room. Should you be in school?"
Howard, "I'm NOT in School Ma!, I work at the University, and for your information I'm not playing games, I conducting very delicate research on the latest robotic technology. Now will you PLEASE leave me alone!"
Doraemon's hands (Score:2)
A sucker at the end of a stick... (Score:2)
So, these guys have created a gripper that is a sucker-like object at the end of a stick.
I think the BBC may be claiming prior art [wikipedia.org].
But it does explain how they conquered the galaxy, with only a sucker.
Combination of techs (Score:2, Interesting)
Tennis-Ball Cylons (Score:1)
Good! When robots take over the world, I can flip them off and they can't flip back.
The Ultimate Dalek Appendage (Score:2)
This, rather than the classic suction cup, is what should be on a Dalek's non-weapon appendage. FAR more versatile!
Finally (Score:2, Interesting)
On the one hand, it's impressive, and a good/fresh idea: flexible gripping without opposable thumbs.
On the other hand, its use is limited in a world where opposable thumbs and fingers is the norm, and I bet that doorknobs won't be that easy to turn.
On the gripping hand, it's something that's needed and could/would be cheap technology put in good use; I'm talking about prosthetics, not robots, obviously.
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and I bet that doorknobs won't be that easy to turn.
Which is why governments have been busy outlawing new installations of doorknobs in favor of levers.
hello humna.. (Score:2)
sdfb fweg WEFi dsailubasdib aisdubab;bui sadui;bdbiub;adbba;sd
sad;oib
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Name two.
Big bang... (Score:2)
The really good news is how less likely this new configuration is to produce a "Big Bang Theory" embarrassing situation. At least, one hopes that is the case.
warehouse & dish-washing problems (Score:2)
Actually it is very interesting.
Solving the problem of cleaning plates and putting them into a dish-washing machine would have an effect measured in billions, if not in trillions. There are some experimental robots, but they are not robust so far.
The same about assembling orders in a warehouse. Say, taking a bottle from the shelf and putting it into a paper bag.
It would free armies of workers from monotonous hard labor, millions of people.
Wow! (Score:1)
prodding action? (Score:1)
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Moronic summary... (Score:2)
How dare the submitter imply that any of us would ever go as far as to RTFA... Despicable abomination!
PS: The video is really nice. Though they cheat by using a slanted glass.