Kristina Grifantini

Science, Health, Space & Tech

Technology Review: Flexible Robotic Hands

Robotic hands made quickly and easily out of plastic have loads of benefits over the traditional metal hands.

Aaron Dollar, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Yale, has invented a robot with a soft touch. His plastic hand is deft enough to grasp a wide variety of objects without damaging them. What’s more, it’s cheaper and requires less processing power than the metal hands typically used in robots.

Dollar’s design uses plastic fingers that can lightly brush against an object–whether it’s a wine glass, beach ball, or telephone–before firming up their grip…

Read the rest at Tech Review. While there, you can also watch a video I made of how the robotic fingers are constructed, from start to finish. One of the lab members is even putting the robotic hands on small helicopters!

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The Cosmic Origin of Our Water


Without water, there would be no life on Earth, but the origin of our planet's water remains a mystery. In "Where Did Earth's Water Come From?" I outline some of the surprising possibilities for our water source.

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In the award-winning "Solar Impact," I outline what scientists know about the mysterious ebb and flow of sunspot cycles and how these changes may have influenced Earth's climate.

Technology

See more of my articles on on robots, cutting edge software, augmented reality, and biomedicine at Technology Review.

Astronomy

Read more of my articles on astronomy, ranging from interplanetary moons to far-off black holes at Sky & Telescope.

Health and Medicine

Read my feature on cancer and caloric restriction in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, or articles on the devastating ALS (Lou Gehrig's Disease) at the Alzheimer Research Forum.

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Videos

Coming soon.

Life’s Little Mysteries


I am a contributor to Life's Little Mysteries, a website dedicated to answering questions about the world. I am also a contributor to the Life's Little Mysteries, available on Amazon.

Flexible Robotic Hands


Rigid, metal robotic hands are not suited for the unpredictability of the real world. In Tech Review I outline an inventive way roboticists are creating plastic, versatile hands.

Social Robots That Learn


Robots will need to be able to adapt and learn to interact with people. In this Tech Review article, I profile "Simon," a robot learning how to take cues from people by watching and imitating actions.

© Kristina Grifantini, 2013. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used with full credit.

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