New Robotic Hand Walks, Balances Independently
Engineers at the Soft Robotics Lab, based at ETH Zurich, have developed a detached robotic hand exhibiting independent mobility. This device can traverse various surfaces, maintain its own balance, and engage with its surroundings without external manipulation. Researchers suggest such fully mobile robotic hands could prove valuable in confined or otherwise difficult to access operational areas.
Previously, efforts to create self walking robotic hands encountered significant design obstacles. Many earlier projects enabled hand locomotion by implementing symmetrically shaped fingers. While this design facilitated crawling, it necessitated a departure from the unequal finger lengths and opposed thumb configuration characteristic of a conventional hand resembling a human's.
But the irregular finger shapes and differing sizes of standard robotic hands are crucial for manipulating everyday objects effectively. Their uneven lengths, however, render autonomous walking considerably more challenging, as each fingertip possesses a distinct reach, making stable self propulsion difficult. A team led by Amir Kazemi addressed these design limitations. According to TechXplore, they trained a commercially available hand, which featured unequal fingers, to balance, crawl, and operate independently. The team documented their methodology in a paper published on the arXiv preprint server.
The research team equipped the robotic hand with a battery unit, several motion sensors, and a miniature computer, all mounted on its dorsal surface. This hardware enabled the hand to function as a self contained unit. The researchers then instructed the hand to achieve movement and maintain balance through reinforcement learning, conducted within a specialised computer simulator before physical deployment.
The system underwent rigorous testing across a variety of environments. The hand successfully crawled across 14 distinct indoor and outdoor surfaces, which included carpet, gravel, grass, and metal grating. Furthermore, its ability to recover from an inverted or side lying position was evaluated. In 25 separate tests, where the hand initially rested on either side, it managed to push itself back upright and regain its stable stance in 21 instances.
And the robot performed additional functions beyond simple locomotion. While supporting its weight on four of its digits, the hand elevated its fifth finger to engage with four separate arrow keys. During these trials, the hand correctly pressed the intended key in 29 out of 32 attempts, demonstrating precision during a balancing act.
In a separate manipulation experiment, the robotic hand approached a small block positioned on a flat surface. It then proceeded to push this block across a table. The hand successfully placed the block within two centimetres of a designated target spot. This task was completed consistently across 15 individual tests, showing a controlled interaction with objects in its environment.
The team anticipates that this development could alter the operational scope for mobile robots, particularly within environments designed for human interaction. Giving robotic hands inherent mobility could render future robotic systems more adaptable and versatile across various human centric spaces and interfaces.
The robotic hand, developed at ETH Zurich, operates without an attached arm.
It successfully navigated 14 varied surfaces and self corrected its posture in 21 of 25 trials.
The hand pressed correct keys in 29 of 32 attempts while balancing on four fingers.
It pushed a block to within two centimetres of a target across 15 tests.
This development could allow robots greater versatility in human centric spaces. Source: techxplore
