ENGINEERINGNET.EU -- Researchers at Saarland University together with associates in Bologna and Naples have developed a robotic hand that can accomplish both tasks with ease and yet including the actuators is scarcely larger than a human arm.
The robotic hand is powerful yet delicate and could one day be deployed as a helper around the house or in catastrophic scenarios.
„We wanted to impart our robotic hand with a broad spectrum of human traits. Its artificial muscles should be able to deliver enormous forces by simple and compact means“, explains Chris May, scientist at Saarland University’s Laboratory of Actuation Technology.
“We came up with a simple, yet extremely effective idea: using strings that are twisted by small, high-speed motors, we are able to exert high tensile forces within a compact space,” explains mechatronic researcher May.
Extremely strong polymer strings enable the Saarbrücken researchers to lift a five kilogram load by 30 mm within a split second, making use of a small electric motor and a 20 cm long string.
Over the past four years international scientists developed various concepts, especially focussed on increasing the versatility with which two-arm robots can be implemented. The European Union sponsored the research consortium DEXMART to the sum of 6.3 million euros.
A total of eight universities and research institutes in Germany, France, Italy and Great Britain participated in the European funded research initiative.
(picture: Uni-Saarland)
