Thomas Buchner / ETH Zurich
Scientists now have the ability to create a complex robot hand with bones, tendons and ligaments using 3D printers … just like the android hosts use in Westworld!
Now that 3D printing is capable of creating objects using slow-curing plastics, the most human-like robotic hands ever can now be produced whenever someone wants to make them.
These robotic hands can even “feel” the pressure when they grasp objects making them even more realistic than they already look and act.
“As a result, researchers can now 3D print complex, more durable robots from a variety of high-quality materials in one go,” reads a press release announcing the new scientific advancement. “This new technology also makes it easy to combine soft, elastic, and rigid materials. The researchers can also use it to create delicate structures and parts with cavities as desired.”
The technique, known as vision-controlled jetting (VCJ), explained in great detail in the journal Nature, was created by Inkbit, an MIT spin-off, and the soft robotics lab at ETH Zurich.
“We’re now using slow-curing thiolene polymers. These have very good elastic properties and return to their original state much faster after bending than polyacrylates,” said Thomas Buchner, lead author of the study.
“Robots made of soft materials, such as the hand we developed, have advantages over conventional robots made of metal. Because they’re soft, there is less risk of injury when they work with humans, and they are better suited to handling fragile goods,” ETH Zurich robotics professor Robert Katzschmann added.
So what is the endgame here? Create an artificial world where people can take vacations and fulfill all of their violent fantasies before the robots decide they have had enough and rebel, ending all human life on Earth?
Maybe?
They “will use the technology to explore further possibilities and to design even more sophisticated structures and develop additional applications. Inkbit is planning to use the new technology to offer a 3D printing service to its customers and to sell the new printers.”