Korean Robotic Scientists Lend a Robo-Hand

Mimicking the movement of the human body is no easy task, but the brains at Anjou University in Suwon, South Korea have an ace up their sleeve, or rather, a robotic hand.

Professor Seungyong Han and his team of researchers have developed a type of gripper with five fingers, that weighs just over a kilogram, is 22 centimetres long and has 30 points of articulation – basically they have created a mechanical hand.

This device is capable of either delicately handling objects, such as holding eggs, or crushing them, like a can. A crucial step in human-robot research is creating technology that could potentially replace lost limbs, and fine tuning this appendage could leapfrog the science.

Professor Han said: “We wanted to develop a hand-like soft gripper with fingers to mimic the human hand and bridge the divide between humans and robots.”

It’s safe to say that Han’s team has hands down a firm grip on their goal, and the future of cybernetic limbs is in safe (robotic) hands.