Robots: A New 3-Fingered Robotic Hand Feels Better [VIDEO]

In the race to allow robots more human abilities, if not Vaseline-sensitive hands, researchers at Carnegie Mellon University and University of Texas recently developed robotic three-fingered hands that can feel things better. This will help robots to do tasks more effectively, according to a release.

That is, the team has created a soft robotic hand that contains many embedded sensors of fiber optic materials, along with a new kind of optical sensor that can stretch. They recently presented their work at the  IEEE International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Hamburg, Germany.

Essentially, by including 14 sensors that detect strain in each of the robotic hand's three fingers, the scientists allowed it the ability to know where its fingertips are and how they are contacting surfaces, and to detect forces that total less than 1/10th of a newton, said the release.

"If you want robots to work autonomously and to react safely to unexpected forces in everyday environments, you need robotic hands that have more sensors than is typical today," says Yong-Lae Park, assistant professor of robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, according to a release.

Park added in the release: "Human skin contains thousands of tactile sensory units only in the fingertip and a spider has hundreds of mechanoreceptors on each leg, but even a state-of-the-art humanoid such as NASA's Robonaut has only 42 sensors in its hand and wrist."

Also recently, MIT developed a soft-touched robot that can grip. You can see it in the video below.

For more great nature science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).