SHAFAQNA (Shia International News Association) — Sandia National Laboratories has developed a cost-effective modular robotic hand that can be used in disarming improvised explosive devices (IEDs). Sandia partnered with researchers at Stanford University to develop the hardware. The operator controls the robot with a glove. The Sandia Hand is modular, so different types of fingers can be attached with magnets and quickly plugged into the hand frame. The operator can easily attach additional fingers or other tools, such as flashlights, screwdrivers or cameras. The fingers of the robotic hand are designed to fall off should the operator accidentally run the hand into a wall or another object.
Principal investigator Curt Salisbury says, "Rather than breaking the hand, this configuration allows the user to recover very quickly, and fingers can easily be put back in their sockets. In addition, if a finger pops off, the robot can actually pick it up with the remaining fingers, move into position and resocket the finger by itself." —www.shafaqna.com/english
Source: Science Space Robot
