September 11th, 2005
World’s First Artificial Working Opposable Thumb
By Steve Johnson
Contributing Writer, RealTechNews
Dr Paul Chappell, a medical physicist from the University of Southampton, UK, has designed a prototype hand that uses 6 sets of motors and gears so that each of the five fingers can move independently, including what he bills as the world’s first artificially made opposable thumb. His hand is able to make movements and grip objects in the same way a real human hand does.
The new hand, dubbed “Southampton Remedi-Hand”, can be connected to muscles in the arm via a small processing unit and is controlled by small contractions of the muscles which move the wrist.
According to Dr Chappell…
“With this hand you can clutch objects such as a ball, you can move the thumb out to one side and grip objects with the index finger in the way you do when opening a lock with a key, and you can wrap your fingers around an object in what we call the power grip – like the one you use when you hold a hammer or a microphone.”
The thumb uses two motors – one to allow it to rotate and one to allow it to flex, allowing it to touch each of the other four fingers. “The real thumb can move in five types of ways, we’ve managed to create a thumb that can mimic at least two of these which is a really exciting achievement. It’s a thumb that has really good flexibility and functionality” says Dr Chappell.
A fully functioning prototype is already in the works, which will also have the ability to sense pressure. Each of the fingers will have piezo-electric sensors that will read how much force is being exerted on the tip, and will send this information to the processing unit. This will allow users to pick up objects and decide how much pressure is necessary to grip something without damaging it.
Source: Institute of Physics
Lockergnome's Tech News Watch says:
World’s First Artificial Working Opposable Thumb
By Steve Johnson, Contributing Writer, RealTechNews Dr Paul Chappell, a medical physicist from the University of Southampton, UK, has designed a prototype hand that uses 6 sets of motors and gears so that each of the five fingers can move independently…
September 12th, 2005 at 11:40 am
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September 27th, 2007 at 11:42 am