While we do not give much thought when it comes to picking up an object, it can be a very confusing moment for robots. After all, it takes plenty of effort for a robot to figure out just how much pressure should it exert when it comes to picking up an item, such as a rock or an egg. Well, the Deka Arm is a robotic arm that has the ability to pick up delicate objects, and has thankfully received the nod of approval for use by the general populace thanks to the US FDA.
Just how does the Deka Arm work? For starters, it comes with fingers which are able to move, pretty much like how our actual fingers work so that amputees will be able to find life a whole lot more fulfilling as they go about feeding themselves, zipping up clothes as well as unlocking doors. US Army veterans have done their bit to test and refine the prosthetic limb.
In fact, the Deka Arm was developed with $40m of research cash injected by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa). This money happens to be a segment of the larger $100m Revolutionising Prosthetics research project which intends to improve the range of robot limbs by a whole lot. It relies on electrodes to detect tiny muscle twitches that wearers make as they continue the learning process to control all 10 different movements that the prosthetic arm is capable of, including picking up a grape or handling something as rugged as a hand drill.
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