Video shows crawling robot hand with big ‘Addams Family’ vibes
Just weeks after seeing a group of strange robots at CES, scientists have revealed a new innovation in the world of spooky robotics: the detachable crawling robotic hand.
Of course, one person’s creepy side is another person’s awesome, and it’s an impressive little robot that invites instant comparison to Thing, the sentient, crawling hand of The Addams Family.
As published in Natural communicationsa group of scientists and first author Xiao Gao, recently unveiled the new type of robotic hand. Videos released alongside the paper show how the hand can detach from its arm and use its fingers to crawl like a spider.
The detachable robot is not limited by the limitations of the human hand. Although its six fingers aren’t far removed from the five digits on our own hands, everything else about this little creepy crawler is quite divergent. For example, the fingers can bend backwards and forwards, so the robot can hold objects against both sides of its base (or its palm, if you want to map it to human anatomy) at the same time. He is even capable of carrying small objects on his back (or stomach), using his free fingers to move around.
Obviously, these features would be most useful in industrial settings, but perhaps one day robots like this will also find their way into ordinary people’s homes.
