Researchers at the University of London made a soft robotic hand using pressure sensors and artificial intelligence that learns to grip things so that they don’t slip out of the fingers. The hand can pick up about a dozen different objects and adjust the way they are held when they start to slip.
Many robot hands are good at picking up objects, but adapting to objects that slip through their fingers is a difficult task for them, especially when several parts of the robot need to be moved at once. Thomas Thuruthel from University College London and his colleagues made a simple soft robotic arm that can stop an object from sliding with just wrist movements.
They started by creating a human hand from a 3D-printed plastic skeleton and molded soft silicone material. To mimic the way human skin feels pressure, they added 32 flexible pressure sensors to its palm and fingers. Finally, they connected the palm to a motor-powered arm, making the wrist the only moving part of the device.
Source: The New Scientist
