Robot Can Change Flashlight Batteries

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Robot Can Change Flashlight Batteries
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A Sandia National Laboratories research team has
adopted a method by building a modular, plastic
proto-hand whose electronics system is basically
produced from parts present in cell phones.
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The Sandia Hand is still able to perform with a
top level of finesse and get a robot, and is
actually even able to replacing the batteries in
a small flashlight.
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It is anticipated to cost about 10,000, a
fraction of the 250,000 price ticket for getting
a state-of-the-art robot hand today.
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What Goes Into Making The Hand
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The researchers could actually scrimp in numerous
clever ways.
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"One was scouring world for the most cost
effective, highest-performing components like
motors, gears, etcetera," says Curt Salisbury,
this project's principal investigator.
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"Another was to build the complete electronics
system from commodity parts, especially those
found in cell phones."
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We also moved from metal structural elements to
plastic, being careful to style the structures so
the plastic would offer adequate strength.
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The Hand's current incarnation has only four
fingers, including very similar to an opposable
thumb.
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"The truth is that for a wide variety of
manipulation tasks that humans do, four fingers
is all you need to do," Salisbury says.
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Still, future iterations no matter what the Hand
could have several fingers as well as arrangement
patients fingers without adding much cost or
complexity.
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The Sandia Hand's fingers are modular and
affixed to the hand frame via magnets.
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This gives the researchers the pliability to
style, interchangeable appendages tipped with
screwdrivers, flashlights, cameras together with
other tools.
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The fingers can also be invented to detach
automatically to stay clear of damage in the
event the hand hits a wall or another solid
object too hard.
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The researchers say the hand can even be
manipulated to retrieve and reattach a fallen
finger.
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How The Hand Is Controlled
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While the Hand might someday be programmed to
operate autonomously, right now a human controls
the device using probably a sensor-laden glove or
a basic control panel.
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The glove is a custom design that reads a
person's hand posture and attempts to copy that
with the robot hand, Salisbury says.
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The communication protocol at once this is
definitely USB cable, but may very well be
upgraded to incorporate any wireless
communications approach, he adds.
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The team's goal is to produce a glove that costs
about 1,000.
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Sandia researchers are trying upgrades to the
Hand, including a palm with two embedded cameras
that convey stereo images to a human operator in
the course of the grasping sequence.
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"Afterward," Salisbury says, "we hope this kind
of technology will move to field tests."
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There will be videos of the Sandia Hand
demonstrating quite a few capabilities, including
lifting a suitcase, choosing a telephone handset
and, perhaps most impressively, dropping a AA
battery right into a flashlight.