One of the key problems in modern robotics is the hands. More precisely, the human hand is such a powerful, versatile and precise instrument that it’s incredibly hard to create a robotic version of it that even comes close.
Palo Alto-based robotics company 1X appears to have made some significant progress here by creating a robotic hand that uses a tendon-like system to operate. The company CEO Bernt Bornich posted a video of the NEO robot and its new hands in action, and while it is impressive, it’s also very, very unsettling.
In the video, we see the robot perform tasks that are easy for most humans but pretty hard for robots, including separating grapes from their stems, picking up a steel glass, and screwing in a lightbulb.
Then, the video veers deep into uncanny valley territory, as the robot slowly unzips a man’s jacket, and – in a particularly creepy moment – shows that its fingers can bend backwards.
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We get it; the robot is pretty dextrous, and at times it even surpasses human abilities, but us humans are very sensitive to things being almost-but-not-quite-human. The robot’s emotionless face doesn’t help matters much, either.
In a blog post, 1X explains that with these new “25 Degree of Freedom” hands, NEO can “perform virtually any task a human can do with their hands.” The hands are IP68 waterproof and food-safe (meaning NEO can wash its hands like a human can), and they’re not just a blunt instrument for handling things; instead, they’re also filled with sensors allowing the robot to react to different, delicate situations, such as recognizing when something is about to slip and fall, or handling something as fragile as origami without breaking it.
Even better, the hands aren’t just a prototype that’s years from manufacturing. 1X claims it can produce them in house, at a scale of 10,000 units per year. Not quite global reaching yet, but pretty good given this entire branch of robotics is still in its infancy.
Still, that video will probably haunt us forever.
