Get a grip on this. "It turns out that opposable thumbs aren't critical for getting a good grip. Neither are fingers. Scientists have created a robotic arm that can do everything from serve drinks to draw pictures even though it has no digits. Their robotic hand, which they describe online today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, is a thin rubber sack filled with coffee grains or small glass spheres. When this hand comes in contact with an object, a small pipe sucks air from the sack, causing it to contract and mold to the object's shape. The contraction is small—a mere 1% change in volume–but was enough to grab most objects the researchers tested."
Inside the balloon hand.
The robotic mitt.
Via: Sciencemag.org
posted by Fizz
on Oct 26, 2010 -
49 comments
Video of horrific, Japanese maggot-man robot allegedly designed to act as a physical presence during phone calls. More info and photos
here.
posted by picea
on Aug 2, 2010 -
90 comments
DUBAI (AFP) - The United Arab Emirates is to mount robot jockeys on racing camels later this year after a ban on using children in the region's popular sport.
posted by Tlogmer
on Apr 11, 2005 -
7 comments
Robots vs. bunnies! Dust bunnies, that is. Roboticist
Rodney Brooks, who you should know because you should have seen
Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, co-founded
iRobot, which is releasing its first consumer model this week:
Roomba, the vacuuming robot. Even once you've seen it in action (which, of course, I haven't), it's probably not going to convince that the future has arrived or get you thinking about
the moral rights of robots, but every consumer tech movement has its watershed, and maybe this will turn out to have been a Big Step for getting robots in our daily lives. The author notes that iRobot "hopes that one day Roomba will do for vacuuming what dishwashers did for dishwashing."
posted by blueshammer
on Sep 16, 2002 -
18 comments
