Scientists have built a new robotic gripper with soft fingers that can pick up and manipulate a range of objects and perform tasks such as screwing in a light bulb. It can twist objects; it can sense objects; and it can build models of the objects it is manipulating. This gives the gripper more than one degree of freedom, so it can actually manipulate the objects it is holding. For example, the gripper can turn screwdrivers, screw in lightbulbs and even hold pieces of paper, thanks to this design. The data the sensors generate is transmitted to a control board, which puts the information together to create a 3D model of the object the gripper is manipulating.

Source: dna October 11, 2017 06:22 UTC