Harry Asada, the Ford Professor of Engineering in MIT’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and graduate student Faye Wu recently presented a paper on a robot that enhances the grasping motion of the human hand at the Robotics: Science and Systems conference in Berkeley, Calif. The robot, which the researchers have dubbed “supernumerary robotic fingers,” consists of actuators linked together to exert forces as strong as those of human fingers during a grasping motion. The device, worn around one’s wrist, works essentially like two extra fingers adjacent to the pinky and thumb. A novel control algorithm enables it to move in sync with the wearer’s fingers to grasp objects of various shapes and sizes. Wearing the robot, a user could use one hand to, for instance, hold the base of a bottle while twisting off its cap. Learn more about Wu’s research at MIT News.
Wu’s wrist-mounted device gives you two extra robotic fingers
August 12, 2014