Anatomically Correct Robot Hand
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Tuesday, 18 of August , 2009 at 2:31 am
What makes this robotic hand, from the neurobotics lab at the University of Washington, special is that it’s designed to be an exact replica of a human hand. The shape of the bones, the attachment points of the tendons, even the musculotendon passive viscoelasticity (whatever the heck that is) are functionally identical. The hand is a testbed for investigating the potential for complex neural control; if your brain sends a signal to a robot hand, the hand better be able to interpret the signal and move just the way you’re expecting it too.
Now, I still don’t think that modeling robots on human anatomy is a very efficient way to make robots more effective, but it is a good way to figure out how humans (most humans) are inherently able to be as dexterous as we are. And that, in turn, could help us to design better robots. Not necessarily more human robots, but robots that make use of (or potentially improve upon) specific attributes of human anatomy.
[ UW Neurobotics ]
Thanks Alan!
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Category: Androids, Biorobotics, Cybernetics, Medical, Research
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