Robots Struggle To Hold Things, So Scientists Built A Creepy Tentacle Gripper
Evolution's best gift to us is easily our hands, and more specifically our fingers that let us do a variety of tasks in our daily lives. Could you imagine having a paw instead? Us neither.
Recently, scientists managed to developer a tentacle robot, a gripper that works a lot like human hands. Only difference? It's a bit creepy.
Building a hand-like gripper
Engineers from Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have built a gripper inspired by jellyfish. The goal of this gripper is to solve one of the biggest problems in robotics - difficulty with grabbing things. Engineers want to be able to grab things with the natural dexterity of our hands.
Owing to this, scientists use a different approach, involving suction cups and similar tools that eliminate the need for a hand-like solution. Now, we have a gripper with tentacles!
It can inflate its tentacles to latch on to whatever object you want it to grab, and it seems that it does a pretty good job at it.
"Grasping, in both biological and engineered mechanisms, can be highly sensitive to the gripper and object morphology, as well as perception and motion planning. Here, we circumvent the need for feedback or precise planning by using an array of fluidically actuated slender hollow elastomeric filaments to actively entangle with objects that vary in geometric and topological complexity," Harvard engineers explained in a paper published in the journal PNAS.
Essentially, it'll grab on to things best it can - you just have to try to find out! The use value of such robots is immense - they can replace mundane jobs that are currently performed by humans, like arranging vegetables and any other goods in warehouses.
What do you think about this artificial hands? Let us know in the comments below.?For more in the world of?technology?and?science, keep reading?Indiatimes.com.
References
Vincent, J. (2022, October 26). This robotic tentacle gripper is gentle, practical, and terrifying. The Verge. https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/26/23424420/robot-tentacle-gripper-rubber-filaments-mr-jelly-hands
