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World's Smallest Robotic Hand

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the smell-like-cabbage dept.

BuzzSkyline writes "The world's smallest robotic hand has been built by Yen-Wen Lu and Chang-Jin "CJ" Kim at UCLA's Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. The microhand can make a fist that can grasp objects smaller than a millimeter across. Check out the freaky video on the researchers' website of the microhand grabbing a blob that looks like a fish egg. The tiny hand is made of inert materials, making it ideal for handling gooey biological samples. Lu and Kim describe their microhand in a paper published October 16 in the journal Applied Physics Letters."

81 comments

  1. Oblig... by jginspace · · Score: 1, Funny

    Could be very handy.

    1. Re:Oblig... by dryekindrew · · Score: 1, Funny

      You've gotta hand it to these guys - that's freakin awesome.

    2. Re:Oblig... by jginspace · · Score: 1

      "You've gotta hand it to these guys..."

      Sorry but I don't think the moderators are going to grasp the meaning of this. Perhaps you could lend them a hand?

    3. Re:Oblig... by gykh · · Score: 2, Funny
      Could be very handy.

      Just perfect for the digital age.

    4. Re:Oblig... by dryekindrew · · Score: 0

      Nah, I think they can handle it.

    5. Re:Oblig... by Kredal · · Score: 1, Funny

      Yup, they'll be able to finger it out.

      --
      Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
    6. Re:Oblig... by LS · · Score: 1

      Perhaps we should them a thing or two.

      --
      There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
    7. Re:Oblig... by SevenHands · · Score: 1

      There's only one way to gain the upper hand on this one. And be careful to not put your foot in your mouth while doing it.

  2. Finally! by Frogbert · · Score: 4, Funny

    Finally something small enough to massage my... never mind.

    1. Re:Finally! by MoralHazard · · Score: 1

      Dammit, scooped. I was going to go with:

      Slashdotters can finally get the level of friction they need!

      But yours is OK, too, I guess.

    2. Re:Finally! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dammit,

      and I was going to state:

      Finally the Japanese can wank in peace!

    3. Re:Finally! by R2.0 · · Score: 5, Funny

      DAMN IT! Dammit, dammit,dammit,dammit,dammit!

      I HATE whn someone steals my jokes.

      Do you perhaps live within 70 miles of me? Can I borrow a pickaxe handle?

      --
      "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
    4. Re:Finally! by dmyze · · Score: 1

      That small huh?

  3. Yes, but... by salec · · Score: 4, Funny

    can it play the world's smallest violin?

    1. Re:Yes, but... by rtyall · · Score: 1

      can it play the world's smallest violin?
      I bet it can, when coupled with Jeremy Beadles other hand.

  4. What is it with... by pookemon · · Score: 1, Funny

    all these "Creepy" videos lately?

    --
    dnuof eruc rof aixelsid
    1. Re:What is it with... by aplusjimages · · Score: 1

      The best part was it wasn't a video file. Instead it was an animated gif. Maybe they are anti-Youtube.

      --
      Can I bum a sig?
    2. Re:What is it with... by pookemon · · Score: 2, Funny

      Oh well then - a creepy gif is something different... ;)

      --
      dnuof eruc rof aixelsid
  5. I Wonder by PixieDust · · Score: 3, Interesting
    Could this application be used for repairing internals of machinery? Perhaps in Zero G environments?

    Consider a system that constantly monitors internal systems (that's already in place). A problem is identified, and a swarm of robotic workers immediately moves out to fix the problem. Could this be ther first step to a sort of nanite repair system?

    1. Re:I Wonder by montyzooooma · · Score: 1
      No.

      Nanite workers would be better employed in breaking the broken area down to its constituent molecules and rebuilding it from scratch. Tiny hands capable of grasping tiny objects? Maybe a fastener of somekind. A kind of over-engineered velcro.

    2. Re:I Wonder by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep, all of the above. Except maybe the nanite thing; it's not THAT small.

      But first they's have to work on some kind of wrist + arm + body for the hand that can get into narrow places. The video shows it rigged like a grab on a minature gantry crane. That's good for tests but not a full solution.

    3. Re:I Wonder by PixieDust · · Score: 1

      There is a reason I said "First Step"

  6. How Many by craagz · · Score: 1
    How many world's-smallest-robotic-hand-built-by-Yen-Wen-Lu- and-Chang-Jin-"CJ"-Kim-at-UCLA's-Mechanical-and-Ae rospace-Engineering-Department Microhands does it take to change a light Bulb?????

    I am guessing it will definitely not be used to change light bulbs

    --
    My Blog | Badsh
    1. Re:How Many by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      not until rhey build the world's tiniest lightbulb.

  7. That hardly qualifies as a 'hand' by OneSmartFellow · · Score: 1

    When I imagine a hand, I imagine a shape something akin to the human hand with more than three digits, one of them apposable, in a somewhat radial arrangement.

    This hand looks more like a pair of pliers.

    1. Re:That hardly qualifies as a 'hand' by Silver+Sloth · · Score: 2, Insightful
      Maybe you need to expand your imagination more - or relax your difinition of a hand. Very few functional, as opposed to recreational, robots look humanoid. We are well evolved (but not designed!) for doing what humans do but that doesn't mean the humanoid shape is appropriate for every solution.

      I bet it doesn't say 'Danger Will Robinson either'!

      --
      init 11 - for when you need that edge.
    2. Re:That hardly qualifies as a 'hand' by OneSmartFellow · · Score: 1

      I guess my point is that the word 'hand' should be used a bit more cautiously.
      As I stated, this is just a very small set of pliers.

      I think most humans will understand a 'hand' to have the following characteristics:
      Has a 'palm' in which to collect items (most significantly - items smaller than the hand itself)
      Has a wrist around which the palm and fingers may rotate.
      Has at least two digits with differing axis of motion (apposable).

      I suppose we could allow a single fork tine to be called a 'hand' if we really wanted to be free with the definition, but my guess is that you would agree that that is not a 'hand' either.

    3. Re:That hardly qualifies as a 'hand' by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      I agree, I was expecting to see more than two "fingers" but saw nothing because TFV is slashdotted. So, ignoring TFV, if the "hand" is a pair of "tweezers" then this is the "world's smallest robotic hand".

      I think the real breakthrough is not size, I mean how the hell do they make a "fist" with two fingers and no palm?

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    4. Re:That hardly qualifies as a 'hand' by x2A · · Score: 1

      "Maybe you need to expand your imagination more - or relax your difinition of a hand"

      Or maybe relax the definition of the word 'hammer' and call it that?

      Or just not use misleading words and expect people to change what the word means to fit the fact you wanna call it something? If there are words that more accurately describe something, less ambigiously, they're the one's that you should use.

      --
      The revolution will not be televised... but it will have a page on Wikipedia
    5. Re:That hardly qualifies as a 'hand' by Kamots · · Score: 1

      So you're aware, the video shows 4 "fingers", arranged with each at a 90 degree offset to the other. So in a sense you do have a palm (the area that the 4 fingers are mouonted around)

    6. Re:That hardly qualifies as a 'hand' by EnderGT · · Score: 1
      more than three digits, one of them apposable, in a somewhat radial arrangement

      RTFA and watch the video more closely - there are four "fingers", arranged radially, with each pair in opposition. Where's the problem?

    7. Re:That hardly qualifies as a 'hand' by TapeCutter · · Score: 1

      Like I said I TFV is slashdotted. As you describe it, it sounds more like one of those slot machine "hands" that pick up prizes, I hope their tiny version has a better grip.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
    8. Re:That hardly qualifies as a 'hand' by OneSmartFellow · · Score: 1

      the video shows 4 "fingers", arranged with each at a 90 degree offset to the other
      Well, no actually, unfortunately the three still images that you refer to as a 'video' are of such poor quality, that I thought there were only two 'fingers'. Upon very careful review I can make out no more than three 'fingers'.

      None-the-less, I stand by my statement, this does not, to my mind, represent a hand.
      It does not appear to be able to be used as a cup like the human palm can.
      It does not appeat to have a single digit which may independantly touch all the other digits like the human thumb can.
      It does not appear to have any single digit capable of touching its own palm like the human hand can.
      It does not appear to have the ability to move freely in all three dimensions like the human hand can.

      It does not appear - from the photos or the article - to have any form of sensors on any of the digits or the palm.

      In fact it fails to conjure up the anthropomorphic image of a hand at all

      Thus, the use of the term 'hand' for this device is entirely misleading.
      Now, if you wish to see a robotic device that does appear to be a hand, try this
      http://www.shadowrobot.com/hand//
      and this
      http://www.shadowrobot.com/hand/techspec.shtml/ Note the use of the following phrase
      24 degrees of freedom

    9. Re:That hardly qualifies as a 'hand' by Ruphuz · · Score: 1

      The Simpsons seem to do fine with their current hand configuration.

      --
      My other post is a First.
  8. Four Fingers and no opposing thumb? by craagz · · Score: 1
    the microhand hand has four fingers

    Ala Simpsons and Family Guy..Is it even as smart as homer Simpson or Peter Griffin?

    --
    My Blog | Badsh
  9. Now that they have the millimeter version... by SeaFox · · Score: 1

    This is their next project.

    1. Re:Now that they have the millimeter version... by Laur · · Score: 2

      They're going to write an error message in German using very small pens?

      --
      When you lose something irreplaceable, you don't mourn for the thing you lost, you mourn for yourself. - Harpo Marx
    2. Re:Now that they have the millimeter version... by SeaFox · · Score: 1

      No, that's called I should have used Coral cache. It was the first photo on this Google image search.

  10. Smaller hand by coke_scp · · Score: 2, Interesting

    IINAMHS, but the world's smallest hand be used to build a yet smaller hand?

    1. Re:Smaller hand by techpawn · · Score: 0

      Very Escher-esq

      --
      Ask not what you can do for your country. Ask what your country did to you
    2. Re:Smaller hand by R2.0 · · Score: 1

      "IINAMHS"

      But I expect you are AHR (a Heinlein Reader). See post below on "Waldo"

      --
      "As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
  11. I appreciate the effort and all... by Facegarden · · Score: 1

    But all i see is 3 frames of nonsense... When i think of a video, i think of something i can comprehend. Maybe i should look at the animation sober...
    -Taylor

    --
    Worldwide Military budgets: $2100 billion. Worldwide Space Exploration budgets: $38 billion. Really, world? Really?
  12. Waldo by seanellis · · Score: 4, Interesting

    10 posts and no-one's mentioned "Waldo" yet?

    From Wikipedia (Waldo (short story)):

    A typical illustration of the tools in the story is when Waldo needs to do micro-dissection on the scale of cellular walls. He uses human-sized waldos to make smaller waldos, then those to make even smaller waldos, and continues the series until he has some small enough to work at the cellular scale. It doesn't occur to him to use conventional fabrication techniques to skip straight down to the smallest size.

    The primary application for these hands is obvious: build even smaller ones!

    --
    Sean Ellis
    Follow OfQuack's antics on Twitter.
    1. Re:Waldo by DMorritt · · Score: 0, Troll

      build small blobs to make smallwe blobs to pick up tiny blobs ... great idea einstein ...

    2. Re:Waldo by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
      the smallest you got, the harder it gets to move things around, right?

      I mean, you'll need enormous amounts of energy to nick a proton off an atom....

      -jl

    3. Re:Waldo by DMorritt · · Score: 2, Funny

      found ... oh no wait thats not him ...

    4. Re:Waldo by TrentTheThief · · Score: 1

      A very cool application for these tiny hands would be a machine capable of splicing breaks in submarine fiber cable links. Tiny hands to manipulate the fiber ends for splicing/polishing, etc.

      And yes, for medical applications... imagine a few tiny hands attached to a tiny craft flowing in the bloodstream crushing the odd bit of cholesteral or smashing blood clots into bits manageble by the body. Not as a curative, mind you, but rather as full time, always present devices. There are so many tremendous applications for such things. A miniature semi-autonomous machine could possible perform many delicate procedures such as repairing defects in blood vessels or demolishing inoperable tumors. If the craft could be navigated into place, and then allowed to snip away and destroy bad tissue.

      When I saw this article, my first thought was Heinlein's, "Waldo & Magic Incorporated." It's an excellent read, BTW. RAH at his best.

      But as mentioned, the best application for these tiny hands is to build even smaller ones! Imagine eventually using the final set to mechanically construct nano machines. It would possibly be less expensive and more practical to actually put nano tech machinery and devices into mass production, or require less high-tech equipment, less energy...

  13. In the real world.... by suntac · · Score: 1

    Looks nice, I do however not yet see a good application for this in the real world. Anyone can come up with a good real world example where we could use this?

    Or is this more some theoretic research, which do's not have a goal to be used in a real working situation?

    --
    Regards, Johan Louwers.
    1. Re:In the real world.... by ajs318 · · Score: 1

      I can see an obvious application!

      We could use this tiny artificial hand to assemble an even tinier artificial hand ..... which we could then use to assemble an artificial hand which was tinier still ..... and so on, and so on, until we're down to the scale of manipulating individual atoms!

      --
      Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
    2. Re:In the real world.... by BuzzSkyline · · Score: 4, Funny

      Microsurgery? Lab-on-a-chip processing? Little assembly lines where the robot hand gently grabs an ovum, fertilizes it with the help of another little hand, and moves it to the nursery where we grow clones to take over the world? Just a thought.

    3. Re:In the real world.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Fisting at the microscopic level?

      (OK, I need to stop now...)

    4. Re:In the real world.... by Bob+Cat+-+NYMPHS · · Score: 1

      fertilizes it with the help of another little hand

      The jokes just write themselves, don't they?

      --
      The latest Slashdot meme.
  14. not much to do by Rulke · · Score: 2, Funny

    I don't know, looks like it can't do much more then grab and hold.. Maybe build it into traps for rats and mice... the hand would grab their balls... and neuter them. Would that be considered a humane trap? atleast they aren't killed :)

    1. Re:not much to do by edwardpickman · · Score: 1

      Actually a miniature mouse trap would work even better. Just center it infront of the mouse hole. You can tell if it's working if their squeaking is higher pitched.

  15. Excellent by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes! Another step toward my dream of remote controlling a miniature-sized battle droid to invade and destroy an ant colony, in 3D.

    (I, for one, do not welcome our new insect overlords.)

  16. Finally! by dangitman · · Score: 1, Funny

    Midgets can now get the handjobs they so desperately need.

    --
    ... and then they built the supercollider.
  17. Wow by ms1234 · · Score: 1

    A three frame video!

    1. Re:Wow by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, very small.

  18. I, for one... by capkanada · · Score: 0

    I, for one, welcome our new micro-handed overlords.

    ...Lets give a small hand for 'em....


    Ugh.. punny.

  19. Who cares? by Symp0sium · · Score: 2, Funny

    I want to see the worlds smallest robotic foot!

    1. Re:Who cares? by Jedyte · · Score: 0, Offtopic

      I want to see the world largest robotic foot!

    2. Re:Who cares? by sahim · · Score: 1

      Then we can see the smallest robot orgy. I know what you were thinking.

  20. Interesting idea, but . . . by dwiseguy · · Score: 1

    The concept of a tiny hand could be useful in medical operations, but there is no cost posted in TFA or an idea of what's needed to control the hand. This is not going to be practical if the requirements for running the small hand are bigger than a real hand.

    --
    Enjoy. - D
  21. Deceptive video? by Ancient_Hacker · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Hmm, a few questions for these guys:

    (1) Why is the "video" not a video, but just a few stills?
    (2) Why does the video not show the "hand" letting go of the object?

    A cynical person might suspect

    (1) The "video" was selected from a larger sequence, some frames of which might not show the hand acting so gracefully.

    (2) They didnt show the hand letting go of an object because they havent figured out how to undo the effects of surface tension, which spell doom for nano-manipulators.

    When they show the "hand" in full-frame unedited video, picking up and letting go of several objects, then maybe they'll have some credibility.

    1. Re:Deceptive video? by jellomizer · · Score: 2, Insightful

      1. I would think speed. I Bet this thing runs very slowly and that took probably 10-15 minutes to do.
      2. They didn't get that part to work yet.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  22. Impressive by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The way it manages to repeatedly pick up and drop that blob over and over again in almost exactly the same fashion! Brilliance! What kind of force is drawing the blob back to other blobs though?

  23. Or can it knit the world's smallest sweater ? by DrYak · · Score: 1

    ...so I could finally offer sweaters at christmas for my ant colony ?

    More seriously, if this thing can hold microscopic needles, as a doctor and instersted in technostuff, I can't wait to see this applied to microstiching and microsurgery.
    Think "Honney, I shrunk the DaVinci Robot !" comming to an operating room near you.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  24. Moo by Chacham · · Score: 1, Troll

    Isn't the smallest hand just one card? Someone played that card a long time ago.

    --
    Have you read my journal today?
  25. This could be useful... by Atrophis · · Score: 0

    in helping out all those guys with another tiny problem.

    --

    i cant seem to come up with a sig.
  26. i think they have a way to go yet... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    ...before they can claim it's the smallest - this puts it to shame.

    (Yes, it's holding a ball 65um across)

    For more info read the section on Cambridge University Engineering department's photo competition page

  27. There's plenty of room at the bottom. by TerranFury · · Score: 2, Informative

    >IINAMHS, but the world's smallest hand be used to build a yet smaller hand?

    This is actually an idea described by Feynman in his lecture 'There's Plenty of Room at the Bottom,' for which he is often cited as being the first to explore the idea of nanotechnology.

    The text is available here.

    I'll quote a little of the applicable bit:

    [...]

    Now comes the interesting question: How do we make such a tiny mechanism? I leave that to you. However, let me suggest one weird possibility. You know, in the atomic energy plants they have materials and machines that they can't handle directly because they have become radioactive. To unscrew nuts and put on bolts and so on, they have a set of master and slave hands, so that by operating a set of levers here, you control the ``hands'' there, and can turn them this way and that so you can handle things quite nicely.

    [...]

    Now, I want to build much the same device---a master-slave system which operates electrically. But I want the slaves to be made especially carefully by modern large-scale machinists so that they are one-fourth the scale of the ``hands'' that you ordinarily maneuver. So you have a scheme by which you can do things at one- quarter scale anyway---the little servo motors with little hands play with little nuts and bolts; they drill little holes; they are four times smaller. Aha! So I manufacture a quarter-size lathe; I manufacture quarter-size tools; and I make, at the one-quarter scale, still another set of hands again relatively one-quarter size! This is one-sixteenth size, from my point of view. And after I finish doing this I wire directly from my large-scale system, through transformers perhaps, to the one-sixteenth-size servo motors. Thus I can now manipulate the one-sixteenth size hands.

    Well, you get the principle from there on. [...]

  28. What good is this? by 3Suns · · Score: 1

    What good is this? Are they going to put a vending/arcade machine in the movie theater lobby that dispenses individual tic-tacs?

    Every Play Wins A Prize!

    --

    -3Suns

    ~~~~
    The Revolution will be Slashdotted
  29. Check your spelling, Ass by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    What the fuck is "apposable"? opposable

    1. Re:Check your spelling, Ass by OneSmartFellow · · Score: 1

      Ah, a spelling Nazi
      .
      Let's see how many sources cite my spelling:
      Here's the first few
      http://www.wordreference.com/definition/apposable/
      http://www.thefreedictionary.com/apposable/
      http://www.wordwebonline.com/en/APPOSABLE/
      http://dictionary.laborlawtalk.com/apposable/
      http://www.alphadictionary.com/wordnet/a/apposable .html/
      http://www.webster-dictionary.net/definition/Appos able/
      What did we learn in class today ?
      There is more than one 'correct' way to spell many words

  30. Smaller hands by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    Check out the micro-tweezers at MEMS Precision Instruments. This guy (Chris Keller) has been making grippers that can grab much much smaller objects and it's actually a commercially-available device now.

  31. What's the sound... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ... of one miniature hand clapping?

  32. But can it clap? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And if it does, can anybody hear it?

  33. You know what I hate about microscopic objects? by tillerman35 · · Score: 1

    You know what I hate about microscopic objects? It's so hard to find them when you forget where you left them. I can't find the damn remote for my DVD player. How the heck am I supposed to find a tiny pair of microscopic hands in the effin couch cushions?

    /I'm worried that I might have a disease that makes me deny being a hypochondriac.