University of Chicago, Cornell researchers develop universal robotic gripper

Robotic hands are usually just that — hands — but some researchers from the University of Chicago and Cornell University (with a little help from iRobot ) have taken a decidedly different approach for their so-called universal robotic gripper. As you can see above, the gripper is actually a balloon that can conform to and grip just about any small object, and hang onto it firmly enough to pick it up. What’s the secret? After much testing, the researchers found that ground coffee was the best substance to fill the balloon with — to grab an object, the gripper simply creates a vacuum in the balloon (much like a vacuum-sealed bag of coffee), and it’s then able to let go of the object just by releasing the vacuum. Simple, but it works. Head on past the break to check it out in action. [Thanks, Jeremy] Continue reading University of Chicago, Cornell researchers develop universal robotic gripper University of Chicago, Cornell researchers develop universal robotic gripper originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Oct 2010 11:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds . Permalink

Posted by on October 27, 2010. Filed under News, Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry