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Robotic Hand Walks and Works on Its Own Fingers
23 Sep
Summary
- A robotic hand walks on its own fingers, inspired by Thing.
- It can navigate surfaces, press keys, and push objects.
- Researchers used reinforcement learning to train the autonomous hand.
A novel robotic hand, inspired by the character Thing from The Addams Family, has been developed by researchers at ETH Zurich. This autonomous creation walks on its own fingers and can perform a variety of tasks, including navigation, key pressing, and object manipulation.
Weighing only 1.8 pounds, the detached hand operates independently. Researchers trained it using reinforcement learning in a simulator, teaching it to balance and move by using its fingers as legs. The hand successfully navigated 14 different indoor and outdoor surfaces.
Further tests demonstrated its capability to press keyboard commands, push a small cube, and even complete a level of the Sokoban video game. The robotic hand can also recover from falls, re-establishing its stance on its five fingers. This prototype aims to enhance robot versatility in human-designed spaces.
