Funky Robotic Hand 195
seldo writes "The BBC is carrying a story about a funky-looking robotic hand with the full range of 24 hand movements (NASA's best effort so far has 12, apparently). It's supposed to be for the disabled, although a spokesman for the British Council of Disabled People points out that everyday tasks are not really what the disabled need help with anymore. I just want one to play with :-)" Update: 08/08 17:58 GMT by T : You may be reminded of the DIY robot head from several months ago -- a perfect match?
ALL RIGHT! (Score:5, Funny)
AND (Score:2, Funny)
perfect for commuters (Score:2)
I am starting to get repetative motion pain from my abundant "commuting guestures". If I can automate the process with a hand like this, then my fingers can rest.
(Kirk should have just such a button on his chair, BTW. I want to see an uncensored version of Trek where Kirk tells Khan how he *really* feels. "Scotty, direct all power to the Main Finger!")
Re:perfect for commuters (Score:1)
Re:perfect for commuters (Score:2)
"Scotty, forget the Impulse Finger! It is not working. Redirect all power to the Photon Phaser Phinger instead!"
"But Sir, that would drain too much power from the Ionic Woopy Cushion."
"Scotty, I gave you an order!"
"Ay ay, Sir! Photon Phaser Phinger it is."
Re:perfect for commuters (Score:2)
Re:ALL RIGHT! (Score:1)
When the poster said.... (Score:2)
Extra set of balls? (Score:2)
"another hand and an extra set of balls."
John Candy,.
Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
Re:ALL RIGHT! (Score:2)
Slashdotted - google cache (Score:1)
here.
Funky Star Wars Hand (Score:1)
Re:Funky Star Wars Hand (Score:2)
Is the evil sold seperately?
Still too crude (Score:2)
Cool! Hands free (Score:2)
Re:Cool! Hands free (Score:1)
Funky looking (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Funky looking (Score:1)
Yeah! Gives a new meaning to those 'robot moves'...
Maybe when they can replace my legs as well I can become the king of the dancefloor!
Re:Funky looking (Score:1)
Size: As close as possible to Average Human.
No, I want it BIIIIIIIIG. (insert Xbox controller joke here)
A third hand... (Score:1)
Not that I would uh need that...uhh... ok, bu-bye..
Finally!!! (Score:1)
Pneumatic Muscles (Score:3, Interesting)
Still not useful to those who've lost only a hand as the actuation gizmos do take up quite a bit of space, but certainly an impressive achievement.
Re:Pneumatic Muscles (Score:2, Informative)
From the website:
The Air Muscle consists of a rubber tube covered in tough plastic netting which shortens in length like a human muscle when inflated with compressed air at low pressure.
The Core of an Air Muscle is a rubber tube....
Re:Pneumatic Muscles (Score:1)
Addendum (Score:1)
From the site (airmuscles.shtml @ [shadow.org.uk])
:
This method could probably be expanded on using more complex configurations (hydrolic cross-latticed tubing) to yield greater strength, as well.
These are different. (Score:3, Informative)
My thought is that the cycling of these pneumatic muscles will probably be somewhat noisy. There would be a hissing and poping sound from them as the inflate/deflate and the control valves are operated. I suspect that by using hydraulic muscles instead would be far quieter and would probably offer the device greater strength. The immediately obvious drawback to this is that the hydraulic method would likely have slower response times than the pneumatic version.
So THAT's what those were in Appleseed! (Score:2)
I'd post links if I could, but I'm at work.
Jon Acheson
Re:Pneumatic Muscles (Score:2)
They are cheap, strong, compact, and easy to build, but they require a lot of energy in the form of not-too-easily available compressed air or other gas. For this reason, they're not used too frequently for prosthetics since carrying enough gas becomes a problem.
These have been used to build a number of camplex life-mimicking robots, including many of the better legged walking robots. Check out the this page [washington.edu] for an idea of how you can use them in place of real muscles to achieve very lifelike results.
If you've got a good source of compressed gas, these are an excellent design choice, and probably the only thing we have that can fairly approximate natural muscle at a reasonable cost. ("Muscle wires" like Nitinol require gobs of power and need way too much cooling time to contract to be useful in most applications.)
Re:Pneumatic Muscles (Score:2)
good military uses too (Score:1)
Maybe we're on our way to... (Score:1)
but seriously, this could be a very good for a lot of people. Just as long as Cyberdyne doesn't get they're hands on it.
Re:Maybe we're on our way to... (Score:1)
Their. Their Hands.
running linux! (Score:1)
If someone hacks into this thing, can they make you type what they want? Or make you tickle girls where they don't want to be tickled?
"I swear Sharon! It wasn't me! It was my hand! Someone hacked into my hand!"
[exeunt]
Re:running linux! (Score:1)
Industrial/Space uses? (Score:2)
It runs Debian! (Score:3, Redundant)
Controller:
* Stock x86 PC running Debian GNU/Linux with RTAI real-time system.
* Shadow's own GPL'd robot code will be shipped, permitting initial setup and evaluations. PC will have CAN interface provided.
Hmm, I wonder how well Beowulf works with RTAI
Re:It runs Debian! (Score:2)
Thanks alot. You just caused me to conjure up the mental image of fifty of these buggers doing the hand jive.
Re:It runs Debian! [OT] (Score:2)
Possessed (Score:1)
Ash says... (Score:2)
They use Debian / GPL code (Score:1)
* Stock x86 PC running Debian GNU/Linux with RTAI real-time system.
* Shadow's own GPL'd robot code will be shipped, permitting initial setup and evaluations. PC will have CAN interface provided.
I don't need the whole hand... (Score:1)
Re:I don't need the whole hand... (Score:1)
I once put my index finger and thumb between the points of an arc cutter....
Fortunately the spark tunnelled across the skin rather than carbonizing my finger tips. Obviously I didn't know until later what it was...
Re:I don't need the whole hand... (Score:1)
Slashdotted... (Score:1)
Alt+Ctrl+Del (Score:1, Troll)
Re:Alt+Ctrl+Del (Score:2)
Re:Alt+Ctrl+Del (Score:2)
Okay, how about remote NT administration?
Why 4 fingers and a thumb? (Score:1)
Re:Why 4 fingers and a thumb? (Score:2, Insightful)
Cool... (Score:2)
Wasn't there a quote like... Necessity is the mother of all inventions? Well disabled people are just that, disabled. They have something that limits them from doing eveything they want, so why not build stuff to allow them to do what they want. And this is unfortunate?
And is it just me, or does this arm thing seem to opperate autonomously? It doesn't seem like its going to be a prothetic that you control, but more like some helper thing that responds to what you want it to do. Well, i suppose that is the better way since controlling the hand would be rather difficult without some kind of direct link into your existing muscles, or nervous system, and even then, it may take quite some time to master. But i'd assume most people would want to control it themselves, rather than have it do what the programming tells it to do.
So Close to Perfection (Score:1)
BTW, how's this thing's wrist movement?
Okay, but how do you move it? (Score:2)
At last... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:At last... (Score:1)
Ever Read (Score:1)
We're gettin' there baby, we're getting there.
Sex for Gimps (Score:2)
What many people fail to realize is that many disabled persons can't enjoy some of the finer aspects of life. Namely, getting it on with a member of the opposite sex.
I think that many researchers would be surprised at how pleased the benificiaries of their research would be if they would concentrate more on doing things like developing unobstrusive and comfortable devices that would allow those who are paralized, or of abnormal shape to enjoy sex like an able-bodied person. Also of need is research on sensory stimulation for those who have lost feeling in that part of their body.
Many female paraplegics, even if they haven't lost feeling in their lower half, have lost the ability to self-lubricate. For many of thse women, KY or Astroglide is not sufficient or not even an option. Research into non surgical ways to help women lubricate would not only benifit these women, but thousands of others who cannot self-lubricate for other reasons.
Google cache (Score:2)
All actuators and not much control (Score:2)
Very True (Score:2)
prog rock musicians (Score:1)
I could imagine a couple of progressive rock musicians (mainly drummers, for some reason, go figure) who'd probably want one.
Didn't I see one of these... (Score:2)
Cool product, but of course it won't be of much use to the disabled until they figure out how to directly replace the missing hand/arm with this one. The article says "it will have a hand and arm on a moving base, with remote control and camera systems, so the user can guide the robot through simple tasks" -- but speaking only for my (fully limbed) self, that's not what I'd want. I'd want something that can be used like my old arm, not floating around on rollers like some cybernetic Thing [artifexstudios.com].
I'll take the head over the hand anyday (Score:2)
Lazy man's guide (Score:2, Funny)
Step one - Find an android.
Step two - Decapitate said android.
ruh roh... (Score:1)
Good news for disabled Sicilians (Score:2)
Well relax, your problems are solved. We'll have you talking like a native (again) before you can do ASL for "technology to the rescue!"
(With apologies to the entire population of Italy and those of Italian extraction, and, well, everyone everywhere. I'm just a dumb Mick, don't whack me!)
disabled angle for funding... sad.. (Score:2)
Interesting to note that the article's angle is on an augmentation for disabled people, while their website doesn't have this as a prime focus. I guess they are well aware this angle is their best bet for funding.
Blue sky projects are just tough to fund, I suppose (though I would be interested to know how they've funded their research over the last 10 years on air muscles).
I guess the military are much more predominant in the USA, hence everybody's immediate reaction "they should ask the military for money, these things would help us kill more people and the army would fund that" ...sigh... I remember my great disillusionment when I was told that MIT was funded to the hilt by the military...
Damn shame we can't find ways of funding more interesting experimental research, that we need short term benefits. These guys are excited by getting 75,000 pounds, for goodness sake, that's probably the cost of a day's drinking water on the Shuttle.
Re:disabled angle for funding... sad.. (Score:2)
I guess a European's reaction would be, "How could we use this to further delay action while genocide is occurring in our own back yard?"
The US military drives lots of research because they aren't motivated by profit. Some of the more interesting things in the world have come out of military funding- like this Internet thingy you're using to slam USAsians with.
I guess this is an offtopic, trolly flamebait.
military issues (Score:2)
My comments re: the military were primarily aimed at the slashdot posters whose reactions were on the lines of 'cool, we could use this to build military exoskeletons like in Alien' and also the the poster who suggested arming soldiers with six of them on a backpack so soldiers could fight with many weapons at once. Yup, as a European who as you rightly points out has 'genocide in my back yard' I get very sensitive to responses which suggest war or weapons are cool.
I'm sorry, I just think it's really sad that there are people whose first reaction on seeing new tech is asking the question - I wonder how we could turn this into a weapon? I think it's desperate that we have to be grateful to the military for funding projects, that we have to have discussions on the lines of 'we spent a lot of money producing an improved killing machine and as a minor by-product something useful for people came along' - why not cut out the bit in the middle and just fund things which may be useful?
I still stick by my statement that it's generally sad that companies have to find a profit angle (e.g. 'help the disabled' -though that's no bad thing) to get research paid for, I wish our countries could be more forward thinking, and it looks like you agree with me on this pointRegarding the 'genocide happening in our back yard' here in Europe, yes, it is terrible, and I wish we could find a good way of stopping it. I get the feeling that it is more likely to happen through social integration rather than further arms funding, including by supporters from outside countries (support from the US for armed struggle in Northern Ireland could be mentioned here...), and covert encouragement by countries who may make political or financial gains.
Troll for the day - how come it's all the oil producing countries that people want to go to war with? How come we're not worried about the human rights abuses and terrorist activities by dictators in other less economically significant countries?
A bit overkill? (Score:1)
My dad's funky robotic hand (Score:5, Interesting)
OK, back when I was about 8-10 years old (can't remember exactly), I got obsessed about building a robot. It simply had to be done, and I pestered my father (an electronics engineer) mercilessly about it. He tried to explain that it was just NOT a simple project, but I wouldn't listen.
Finally, I wore him down, and "we" (meaning him, and I watched) built a robotic hand. It was actually pretty clever, considering the primitiveness of it. The thumb, index finger and middle fingers were completed before I FINALLY lost interest and saw that it wasn't as easy as I thought.
He basically used some steel pipe that he filed into joints, and used springs to return the fingers to the outstretched position. A cable running through the pipe connected to the end of the finger tips caused them to contract.
Unfortunately, the middle finger broke off at one point, and has been lost. For the first time on the web, here are some pictures [geocities.com]. It was made a little under 30 years ago or so. I should have taken a picture of the fingers contracted, but I didn't think of it until now. Maybe I'll go back and add one. :)
My father died about 10 years ago, but this is one my most treasured possessions. It's a testament to the fact that he seldom blew me off when I was interested in something, and did his best to help me (and I probably deserved to be blown off for this request!)
Re:My dad's funky robotic hand (Score:2)
Sheesh! Geocities sucks. I can't believe I got THAT many visitors that fast, but it's already "over the limit". Well, I'll think of somewhere else to put the pictures (unless someone would like to mirror them for me...)
Re:My dad's funky robotic hand (Score:2)
OK, I actually spent FIVE DOLLARS of my hard-earned money to set up a real web site (WHAT??? PAY FOR SOMETHING ON THE WEB YOU GOTTA BE FREAKIN' KIDDING ME...)
Check it out here [randev.com]. Sorry for the ugliness...
Re:My dad's funky robotic hand (Score:2)
I'm impressed. (Score:2)
And, the design is pretty elegant, all things considered. It still looks impressive today.
Jon Acheson
Re:My dad's funky robotic hand (Score:2, Funny)
Apparently your dad is a moderator on Slashdot. :)
Chainsaw (Score:1)
Human assistance (Score:5, Interesting)
"This is not only to do the basic tasks, but also to do other, more sophisticated tasks, which are essential to our well being, such as getting out of the house, meeting new people and having genuine control over our daily living."
The problem with this quote is basically it's saying "Disabled people need slaves". Last I checked there's not a large pool of reliable, trustworthy people that want to become slaves. My grandpa has gone excessively senile and my grandma has to do everything for him. Now, I love my grandpa, but I'd never be able to stand having to be on call 24/7/52 whenever he needed anything. What these "gadgets" ARE good for is working towards the next best thing: independance. Being able to do everything you want to do under your own initiative instead of having someone else do it. Leaving the house and meeting friends when you want to, and not having to convince, or order, someone else to.
Lets face it, you can't manufacture human slaves. At least not in the US
Re:Human assistance (Score:2)
Speaking as an authentic disabled person, I'd say that robots are snazzy and neat and cool and not really going to make a major difference in most disabiled folks lives. A simple matter of little gadgets or tricks and techniques has covered the "day to day living" gap nicely for me using stuff I could find at a dollar store or have made for me by bending plastic into various shapes and stuff.
So I see the guy's point that inventing these things 'for the disabled' isn't particularly spectacular.
What disabled folks need more than robots are things that you can't easily fix or build... laws like the Americans with Disabilities Act (to establish equal footing and allow even for simple things like curb cuts in sidewalks) to solutions to social hurdles and social perceptions. Those are the bigger, more critical issues. Being able to brush your teeth in the morning is just a matter of finding the right trick; being able to hold a job and interact with your peers without hassle is considerably more complicated.
Adam's Family (Score:1)
Not really that new, is it? (Score:2)
why so many wires (Score:2)
The air supply is in the arm (Score:2)
Who the fsck is he? (Score:2)
Doctor Visits (Score:2)
I'm not sure whether such would be an improvement.
"Microsoft up the Wazoo" would no longer be just a cliche.
Can anyone... (Score:5, Interesting)
Strength:
* Wrist : 1.5Nm
* Distal : 0.5 Nm (Fingers / Thumb)
* Proximal : 1.0 Nm (Fingers / Thumb)
Are we talking million $ man strength here or more like tinkertoy strength?
Re:Can anyone... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Can anyone... (Score:2)
Re:Can anyone... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Can anyone... (Score:3, Informative)
Newton metres (Nm) x 8.85 = Pounds-force inches (Ibf in; lb in)
--
Wrist: 13.275 pound/inches
Distal: 4.425 pound/inches
Proximal: 8.85 pound/inches
---
Re: Again... (Score:3, Interesting)
Assuming unlimited strength at the elbow how much (in jym-room barbell english) can this arm lift and swing?
how to get it to move properly? (Score:2)
I know that the "claws" that are worn by some one-armers are opened and closed with movement of the shoulder and shoulder-blades....
Unfortunate... (Score:3, Insightful)
Its also unfortunate that the cold war was indirectly responsible for putting men on the moon.
Its unfortunate that some of the initial research into nuclear power plants was for the development of the atomic bomb.
Its unfortunate that people die to establish and protect freedom.
Many of the luxuries we take for granted today were initially created to serve some desparate need. That humanity as a whole benefits from the results of efforts to relieve the suffering of a few, should not be taken to mean that those efforts or results are "unfortunate". Its called progress. Its motivation. Its all about the itch that needs to be scratched.
And I seriously doubt those who are disabled consider those efforts to be "unfortunate" in any way.
-Restil
Not that funky... (Score:3, Interesting)
No, when I think "funky robot hand" - I always think of that extremely dextrous, three-fingered robot hand that was shown way back in the 1980's on such shows like "That's Incredible" and "Beyond 2000" - I can't find any pictures online of it, though I think it was one of the incarnations of the Utah/MIT Dextrous Hand Master system (I found plenty on the system, but they don't have the same hand I remember). One thing I remember that was most funky about the hand was that the fingers could flex inward and outward, to hold and manipulate large ring type pieces. Each finger had base abduction, and multiple flexing movement - it seemed to be driven by steppers with flexible cables. They had a demo (which seemed staged, and the hand without feedback sensors at the time) showing it handling and manipulating various items - very impressive, fluid, and beautiful to watch in action.
Does anyone here know of what I am talking about - and can anyone find images? I admit I didn't do a major exhaustive Google search - only delved a few pages in the results...
Does it have a speaker? (Score:2)
It should, so it can scream "TALK TO THE HAND!!! [imdb.com]"
Detachable digits (Score:2)
Hey, why stop there? Why not provide specialized appendages that can plug into the hand in place of the fingers, like pliers, screwdrivers, scissors, milkshake blenders... French ticklers...
'Course, it does open the possibility of misplacing your digits. Imagine leaving your pliers at home and arriving at work with a buzzing silver bullet for a thumb.
I hate it when that happens.
They got the specs from ..... (Score:2)
Robotic head? (Score:2, Funny)
But disabled people without heads are called.... dead.
Emulating biology? Why? (Score:4, Interesting)
read the article? (Score:2)
Hmm, maybe read the BBC article.... your point is covered already...