Comments on: A Robot With Beanbag Hands Learns the Gentle Touch

By: halo

halo — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:56:55 +0000

Thanks this manufactured for interesting reading. I really like your wordpress theme,I keep coming again here and that i dont know why. I just seriously like your web site lol… I just study something much like this on an additional web site. I think they may well of stolen your blog?

By: artistic1

artistic1 — Tue, 19 Apr 2011 19:09:27 +0000

More importantly will I finally be able to win something at the claw machine?! Those stuffed animals are lodged in pretty tight and it’s hard to pull them apart.

Seriously though, this could be a very useful device in a surgical setting for supplying instruments to the surgeon in a sterile way, multiple “hands” working at the same time with no concern of collisions or hesitations.

By: Andrew Moseman

Andrew Moseman — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 15:54:23 +0000

@Captain Skellett
Thanks for the tip. Indeed, they used coffee grounds in this test of the device. Fixed.

By: Captain Skellett

Captain Skellett — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 00:21:54 +0000

I think New Scientist have it wrong – in the journal article it says the material used was ground coffee, not glass beads.

By: Travis

Travis — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:56:12 +0000

Colin Angle (iRobot CEO) showed the "jamming gripper" prototype in his 2009 TEDMED talk as an extension of "jamming skin locomotion" (blob robot). In his talk, he showed a video of it grasping medication, keys, a water bottle, and even a dummy-patient's arm; he also demonstrated a hand-held version. It's nice to see a more formal evaluation. @OldBioEngineer: It's definitely not a new idea. Recall those "Vac-Man" toys from the 1990's used the exact same concept. I'd be curious to read through your thesis. Ping me over on Hizook.com

By: Eliza Strickland

Eliza Strickland — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 15:12:26 +0000

@ OldBioEngineer:

Nope, the researchers aren’t claiming that this is brand new. From the post: “It’s based on an idea that’s been around for a while…”

But I didn’t realize that “a while” meant several decades. Thanks for sharing your experience.

– Eliza, DISCOVER online news editor

By: OldBioEngineeer

OldBioEngineeer — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 03:50:26 +0000

I wrote my PhD thesis in 1974 about the development of an artificial hand, and we were using this deformable grip with glass beads in a non-stretch membrane back then. I hope the use on a robot now is not being claimed as something new !!!

By: MT-LA

MT-LA — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 21:34:53 +0000

@bigjohn: No, but it will gleefully reprogram your DVR and then claim that it was your roommate.

By: bigjohn756

bigjohn756 — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 21:29:16 +0000

@2 MT-LA — Can it also change channels?

By: Andrew Moseman

Andrew Moseman — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:54:34 +0000

@MT-LA good point. I’d be intrigued to see the two technologies combined.

By: MT-LA

MT-LA — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:43:01 +0000

I see the “universal gripper vs. robot hand design” to be a false dichotomy. How about an arm equipped with the uni-gripper for picking up objects and simple re-orientation, and another arm equipped with something with more dexterity to do manipulation.

This particular universal gripper design may also be susceptible to sharp objects..anything that can pierce the bag and compromise the vacuum. This adds further limitations. I’m not discounting the breakthrough though…this will surely find its onto industrial robots.

@bigjohn: This is a robot designed to pick up remote controls

By: bigjohn756

bigjohn756 — Mon, 25 Oct 2010 20:29:36 +0000

Is this a robot or a remote control device?