Korea develops robotic hand as flexible as human hand

Scientists in South Korea have developed a robotic hand that is strong enough to crush a can, but also dexterous enough to use a small tweezers.

According to engineers at Ajou University in Suwon, South Korea, the robotic hand, called ILDA, is packed with all the necessary equipment to be able to move as flexibly as a human hand.

The ILDA is mounted on a commercial robotic arm that can perform a variety of tasks, from holding an egg, crushing a can, to using scissors. It measures 21.5 cm, weighs about 1 kg. Scientist Uikyum Kim and colleagues say they have developed ILDA with 20 joints. These joints allow the robot 15 degrees of freedom of movement and link with the fingertips to generate a force of 34 Newtons. In addition, this robotic hand is also capable of cutting paper with scissors.

In many experiments, the authors demonstrated that the hand that can pick up objects of various shapes can also gently hold an egg.

'ILDA's grip has been proven when this robotic hand can crush aluminum cans and deftly hold eggs. In addition, the hand can perform different gripping patterns according to the shape of different objects,' the authors said.

From analyzing existing robotic hands, their positive and negative characteristics, the team identified the core criteria for their new robotic hand.

'We conclude that it is important to have superior features such as dexterity, fingertip force, controllability, durability, low cost, ease of maintenance and compactness,' the authors said. let me know.