World’s Most Advanced Prosthetic Hand

The primary reason why robotic arms were not as good as human hands was the ability of humans to pick up and manipulate very small objects with ease. An ease with which robots were unable to function till the team of researchers at Yale University and the University of Washington went ahead and developed this latest prosthetic hand.

Led by professor Zhe Hu, the team had 3D printed replicas of the bones found in a normal human hand. These pieces were then joined together by Spectra, a polyethene fibre. The contours of regular muscles found in a human hand were made up of sheets of rubber which were laser cut for precision.

Now that they have succeeded in producing amazing manual dexterity in the prosthetic hand, the team is now working on covering this framework with actual human skin tissue. Should they succeed to make the human tissue grow on the frame of this prosthetic hand, it will be a very life like prosthetic for people who have lost a hand.

In addition this science project has the additional benefit of being used as a remotely operated hand which can be asked to carry out sensitive tasks in a hostile environment. Think sending the hand out  instead of the full astronaut or maybe operating parts of a nuclear power plant.