Some ideas hatched in university research labs need a little nudge to take off into the real world. Take the robotic hand designed by Harvard engineering professor Robert Howe and his research team. Grasping and manipulating irregular objects is an incredibly challenging task for robots, but in 2012, Howe’s robotic hand managed to outperform its rivals in a competition sponsored by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Autonomously picking up a basketball, swinging a hammer, and lifting a door key off a table, the hand proved itself adaptable and robust.
Image: http://www.seas.harvard.edu
