New wrist-robot gives you two extra fingers

Researchers have created a new wrist-mounted robot that provides two extra fingers in order to enhance the grasping motion of the human hand.

Researchers at MIT have developed the device that can be worn around one's wrist, works essentially like two extra fingers adjacent to the pinky and thumb and the 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.

Harry Asada, the Ford Professor of Engineering in MIT's Department of Mechanical Engineering, said that this was a completely intuitive and natural way to move the robotic fingers and people don't need to command the robot, but simply move their fingers naturally and the robotic fingers would react and assist those fingers.

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.

Faye Wu would like to take the robot one step further because as of now the robot can only mimic the grasping of a hand, closing in and spreading apart in response to a human's fingers, but the researchers want it to not just control position, but also force.