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Some
groups/organizations/people who are building android hands/arms
- 1. The The
Shadow project (London, England) has a really super
hand. Their hand has 21 DOF. Each finger has 4 DOF and
the thumb has 5 DOF. Their
hand is even for sale, but its quite expensive at 90,000 Euros (
= $119,700)
-
-
- Shadow
dexterous hand
- 2. Dainichi Company, Ltd.
Kani, Japan is also offering
a complete hand. Their hand
- has 20 joints and 16 DOF. The thumb has 4 DOF, while the
rest have 3 DOF each.
- The weight
is 1.4 Kg. This hand is quite expensive also: One
hand (hardware only)
- is
3,866,000 yen ( = $36,900) while the software is 1,520,000 yen ( =
$14,500) or
- a total of 5,386,000 yen ( = $51,400).
-
 -
GIFU III hand from Dainichi Company Ltd, Kani, Japan.
3. A small French company called Techno Concept
is now offering an android hand. You may contact Gilles Lopez for information about it.
The hands are custom made with 3, 4, or 5 fingers. You also have
a choice of materials. The cost is about 2,500 Euros ( = $3325).
-
- 4. Dr. Paul Chappell of the University of Southampton has produced
a fully functional hand which is
- intended to be used as a prosthetic hand. It si called the
Southampton Remedi-Hand.
It has
- 6 DOF, one
for each finger and 2 for the thumb.
Another
article is here.
New article is here 9/1/7
- 5. NASA's space android is called Robonaut.
- This is a project at Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX which is
- under the direction of Robert Savely. It has been underway for
- several years. They have a staff of
about 25. Robonaut's hands
- have 14 DOF
each. I wonder how much it cost? $1,000,000?
- $2,000,000?
Robonaut
Showing fingers
- 6. Juliano Iuscu is a first year student in Melbourne, Australia.
- He has build a very nice hand. You can contact Juliano here.
- He now has a website here.
- 7. Andreas Maryanto of Surabaya, Indonesia sent me an
- email about his humanoid hand project. He has lots of good
- pictures of it on his website here. His hand has 11 DOF - 2 for each finger
- and one extra for the thumb. He uses servo motors to operate the fingers.
- Andreas is a grad student at the University of Surabaya.
Great job Andreas.
Maryanto Hand.
- 8. Faulhaber
Group has a really sophisticated hand.
- Robotic hands for more delicate tasks have proven unsuccessful
due to the lack of available technical capabilities. Positive
interaction of microelectronics and micromechanics has now produced
the much sought-after break through.
Faulhaber Group Hand.
- 9. Festus Abayomi sent me an email with pictures of a hand
which he is working on.
- You can email Festus here: Festus Abayomi
Abayomi Hand.
- 10. Squse, a Kyoto based robot and factory
automation manufacturer, said it has developed a 400-gram (14 ounce)
hand with five human-sized fingers with artificial fibers that can be controlled by air pressure.
Pneumatically operated hand from Squse.
- 11. Touch Bionics,
a Scotland firm that developed
the i-LIMB Hand, a prosthesis with five individually powered
fingers, has announced the availability of the device. The company,
an Edinburgh medical device developer, is also making ProDigits
partial hand prostheses, based on similar technology.
Another article.
There is a video
here. The new-found freedom the device provides is not cheap, though. The I-Limb Hand costs approximately $18,000,
or two times the cost of normal prosthetics.
- 12.
DEKA Research
and Development of Manchester (UK) has built a robotic arm
which can
- be used as a prosthetic arm by those who have
lost their own due to accident or war.
-
Here is a good article about it. Unfortunately
it costs about $100,000 = 80,000 Euros
Comments? Email me at crwillis@androidworld.com
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