Now robots will get human-like hands with natural flexibility, thrust, power and grip to do otherwise difficult jobs including removal of landmines in war fields and defusing of bombs in case of terror attacks

By Syed Akbar
Hyderabad: Now robots will get human-like hands with natural
flexibility, thrust, power and grip to do otherwise difficult jobs
including removal of landmines in war fields and defusing of bombs in
case of terror attacks.

At present, the electro-mechanical hands used in robots do not perform
jobs as accurately as human hands do, though the robotic hand has five
fingers and joints similar to the human hand. In many tasks,
human-like hands are required to do the same kind of operation like
the one people do. The existing robotic hands do not match the human
hands if the task involved is of critical nature like handling bombs
in terror attacks or removing mines laid underground.

However, in the new technology developed by a team of Indian
scientists, robotic hands get the human touch, performing difficult
tasks with great flexibility just like that of the human hands. All
that a person has to do is to simulate hand gestures and the robotic
hands will carry on works on their own.

The new technology based on fingertip detection was developed by Dr
Jagdish Lal Raheja and other researchers at the Machine Vision
Laboratory attached to the Central Electronics Engineering Research
Institute.

“Fingertip detection has great applications in the development of a
hand at the human-machine interface. There are several scenarios where
people need a robot that has a human hand-like capability, like the
execution of suspected ammunitions, removal of landmines in war fields
or a narrow place where human beings cannot reach,” Dr Jagdish pointed
out.

The human-like hands in robots recognise gestures generated by the
image of real hand and perform the task given. It also bends fingers
just like the real hand. All the movements of the new robotic hands
are controlled by just hand gestures. The robotic hands read the
fingertips and centre of palm of the person operating them.

According to the researchers, this technology does not require any
sensor, fingertip markers like colour or paper clip to detect fingers
in the image. Human gestures are transformed into mechanical hand
action.

Whenever the user moves the hand position, the information is
transmitted to the remote mechanical robotic hand, which also moves in
the same direction.