New Robotic Method Gives Robot Hands More Dexterity (VIDEO)

First Posted: Aug 05, 2015 08:07 AM EDT

When it comes to gripping things, most robots are a bit clumsy. Even if they have large pincers or claws, they're designed to make relatively simple maneuvers, such as grabbing and object and placing it somewhere else. Now, researchers have designed a robot that can make much more nimble movements with its hands.

Engineers at MIT have found a way to give robots more dexterity by using the environment as a helping hand. The researchers actually developed a model that predicts the force with which a robotic gripper needs to push against various fixtures in the environment in order to adjust its grasp on an object.

For example, if a robotic gripper aims to pick up a pencil at its midpoint, but instead gabs hold of the eraser end, it could use the environment to adjust its grasp. The robot can loosen its grip slightly and push the pencil against a nearby wall just enough to slide the robot's gripper closer to the pencil's midpoint.

"Chasing the human hand is still a very valid direction [in robotics]," said Alberto Rodriguez, the lead researcher, in a news release. "But if you cannot afford having a $100,000 hand that is very complex to use, this [method] brings some dexterity to very simple grippers."

In fact, robots in manufacturing, medicine, disaster response and other gripper-based applications could interact with the environment in a cost-effective way to perform more complex maneuvers. This could make robots far more useful in the future.

"We're sort of outsourcing that dexterity that you don't have in the gripper to the environment and the arm," said Rodriguez. "Instead of dexterity that's intrinsic to the hand, it's extrinsic to the environment."

The findings are important for the future of robotics, and give grippers that much more dexterity to give them more use in various applications.