Tweakfest - The Human Roboter Hand

Gabriel J. Gomez, Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, University of Zurich

Talks about the work on designing a robotic hand that mimic the human hand. Exploring the concepts of grasping. Very high degree of freedom. Pressure sensors. Different movies of the hand opening, closing, grasping things (spheres, cylinders).

The hand is controlled by a neural network, fed by the the sensors (pressure and bending sensors) and the output is fed to the actuators that control the hand. This leads to the hand trying to “explore” objects when holding them.

One real purpose is to use this hand as a prothesis for amputees. Fascinating movie of a patient fitted with this hand to build a tower of building blocks. Now this IS a purpose that makes sense.

They are working on the full circle: not only controlling the hand by “intentions”. Measurement of electrical signals fed to the hand which sends back signals from it’s pressure sensors which are interpreted by the human brain controlling the hand. After two months of training a patient is able to work pretty easily with a robotic hand.

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