Intelligent software to help build perfect robotic hand

8 January 2008

Scientists in Portsmouth and Shanghai are developing intelligent software that could help build the perfect robotic hand.

They will record in detail how the human hand moves and use artificial intelligence to learn and copy the movements. They hope to replicate the fine movement of the human hand in a robotic device.

Dr Honghai Liu, senior lecturer at the University of Portsmouth’s Institute of Industrial Research, and Professor Xiangyang Zhu from the Robotics Institute at Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, were awarded a Royal Society grant to further their research.

“A robotic hand which can perform tasks with the dexterity of a human hand is one of the holy grails of science,” said Dr Honghai Liu, who lectures on artificial intelligence at the University’s Institute of Industrial Research. The Institute specialises in artificial intelligence including intelligent robotics, image processing and intelligent data analysis.

He said: “We are talking about having super high level control of a robotic device. Nothing which exists today even comes close.”

Dr Liu used a cyberglove covered in tiny sensors to capture data about how the human hand moves. It was filmed in a motion capture suite by eight high-resolution CCD cameras with infrared illumination and measurement accuracy up to a few millimetres.

Professor Xiangyang Zhu from The Robotics Institute at the Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, which is recognised as one of the world-class research institutions on robotics, said that the research partnership would strengthen the interface between artificial intelligence techniques and robotics and pave the way for a new chapter in robotics technology.

“Humans move efficiently and effectively in a continuous flowing motion, something we have perfected over generations of evolution and which we all learn to do as babies. Developments in science mean we will teach robots to move in the same way.”