Robotic hand lets people feel and move objects from really far away

Robot hand could make defusing a bomb a lot safer

Spotted: A robotic hand gives users the ability to feel and manipulate objects from as far away as another country. The technology is a combined effort from three companies with robotics from the Shadow Robot Company, fingertip sensors from SynTouch and haptic feedback gloves by HaptX.

The sensors feel everything a finger would including force, vibration, and temperature. Combined with a dexterous anthropomorphic robotic hand, the device can move with precision. Motion data captured by HaptX Gloves helps better control remote hand movements to perform everything a real hand can. With technology like this, someone could theoretically defuse a bomb from a safe distance away.

While haptic robots have transmitted touch before, this is the first successful example of remote touch using a haptic robot hand, the company’s managing director, Rich Walker said.

The firms were brought together by Japanese airline ANA as part of its avatar technology initiative.