Robotic Hand

While humanoid robotics are not currently developed enough for general human interaction, there is much research directed at creating a robot that can safely interact with humans. An important sub-system of the robot will be the end-effector, or hand. Ishikawa Komuro Lab has developed a high-speed robotic hand capable of manipulating human objects. Some of it's more impressive capabilities are throwing and catching a cell phone and dribbling a ball.

The system consists of a high-speed camera, a parallel photo processing array and the three-fingered end-effector. Using novel control algorithms, the robot is able to throw a ball, tie a knot and catch a cell phone. This end-effector is probably too fast to be used around humans, but for human-robot interaction to become a reality, a similar system will have to be developed.