http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21628885.800-need-a-hand-wearable-robot-arms-give-you-two.html
IF YOU fancy an extra pair of hands, why not take a
leaf out of Dr Octopus's book? A pair of intelligent arms should make
almost any job a lot easier.
The semi-autonomous arms extend out in
front of the body from the hips and are strapped to a backpack-like
harness that holds the control circuitry. The prototype is the handiwork
of Federico Parietti and Harry Asada of the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, who suggest that one of the first uses could be to help
factory workers, or those with tricky DIY tasks to perform.
"It's the first time I've seen robot
arms designed to augment human abilities. It's bold and out of keeping
with anything I've ever seen to attach two arms to a human," says Dave
Barrett, a roboticist and mechanical engineer at Olin College in
Needham, Massachusetts.
So how are the arms controlled?
Parietti and Asada designed the limbs to learn and hopefully anticipate
what their wearer wants. The idea is that the algorithms in charge of
the limbs would first be trained to perform specific tasks.
Rest at the link.
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