Physicists at the University of Chicago have developed a unique robot hand. Instead of the generic fingers which can be hard to control on a robot, they opted for a ball shape filled with glass balls or coffee beans. Suction is then applied after the "hand" is placed on your object, which allows it to grip things quite strongly and securely. It can grab small things like pencils and pens, and is strong enough to write. For obvious reasons the "hand" has more trouble with completely flat objects and porous objects like cotton balls. It also can not grip anything bigger then half of it's size. The team said the largest thing they were able to pick up was a one gallon jug of water. It will be interesting to see how this technology developes in the future. Follow the link for a video demo. gripper video demo
via: news.sciencemag
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