German Researchers Build Terminator Robot Hand

[n2doc]

By Charlie Sorrel January 26, 2011 | 6:53 am | Categories: R&D and Inventions




The robot hand you see is German made, by researchers at the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics. In building the first part of the Terminator, the researchers were going for robustness, and they appear to have achieved quite chilling success.

Not that utility has been traded for toughness: As the video shows, the hand is capable of an astonishing range of movement. The fingers are controlled by 38 tendons, each of which is driven by its own motor inside the forearm. Two tendons serve each joint. When their motors turn the same way, the joint moves. When they turn in opposite directions, the joint stiffens. This lets it toughen up to catch balls, yet be loose enough to perform delicate operations.

During tests, the researchers went all Joe Pesci on their robot creation, and took a baseball bat to the arm — a 66G whack. The result? Nothing. The hand came away unscathed.

Not only can the hand take punishment, it can also deal it out, exerting up to 30 Newtons of pressure with its fingers, plenty for either a stimulating massage or a deadly choking grip. It is also fast. The joints can spin at 500-degrees per second. If it tenses the springs joined to the tendons first, and then releases that energy, the joints can reach a head-spinning 2,000-degrees per second, or 333 rpm. That’s fast enough for it to snap its fingers and summon a human slave to do its bidding.

more
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2011/01/german-researchers-build-terminator-robot-hand/

Now all we need is a layer of organic flesh to cover it up. And a power source.....

[The Backlash Cometh]

1. Cue in beat to the Terminator.

[Nuclear Unicorn]

2. Did they really build it or did they find it one morning when they came into the factory?

[ironrooster]

3. inventor creates wire cutters to terminate tendons - oh wait....

[Ozymanithrax]

4. The catch is building the body to go with it but Schwarzenegger is unemployed.

He will be back.

[RC]

5. 30 Newtons of pressure with its fingers =

approximately 6¾ pounds.

[sakabatou]

6. I could see this as a new generation of prosthetics

[TheMadMonk]

7. A cruder version of this has been around for quite a while.

Made from motorcylce chain. Mythbusters have used it in an episode or two.

This looks like it could well have greater freedom of movement than the fingers of the human hand. However, as always, the final proof of the pudding will be in the thumb and what it can do.

Overall looks nice for future prosthetics development, though for the timebeing at least, actually getting the full range of movement out of that hand is going to be limited to remote operation with a real hand inside a waldo glove.

[txlibdem]

8. NASA made a far superior robot hand

a human-like robot hand and arm effectively manipulating astronauts tools. Teleoperation commands are provided by an operator wearing and instrumented glove and hand controller, which also reflect measured forces.

http://www-robotics.jpl.nasa.gov/applications/applicationVideo.cfm?App=9&Video=78
(photo and links to a few videos of the hand in action)

"Elegant" Robot Hand Grasps Eggs With a Light Touch

May 5, 2009—As far as robot dexterity goes, RAPHaEL may just have the upper hand.

The air-powered machine, created by undergraduate students at Virginia Tech's Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, can gently grasp a raw egg as successfully as the machine holds a heavy can of food—and is flexible enough for sign language.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/05/090505-robot-hand-picture.html

[txlibdem]

9. Anybot -- telepresence robots are here NOW

http://singularityhub.com/2009/03/30/up-close-with-the-telepresence-robot-from-anybots/

watch the video and be prepared to be amazed.

"Soon you'll be able to log into a flash-based web page and control the robot right from your web browser."

[Orsino]

10. Just as Arnold leaves the governorship?

Just as Linda Hamilton's Refuge goes into post-production?

Goddamn it people, wake up!