Artificial Hand
From: NASA Tech Briefs Insider - 12/01/2005

Funded by the Future and Emerging Technologies initiative of the IST program,
the CYBERHAND project aims to hard wire a highly dexterous, bio-inspired
artificial hand and sensory system into the nervous system, allowing sensory
feedback from the hand to reach the brain, and instructions to come from the
brain to control the hand. 

The CYBERHAND prototype has 16 degrees of freedom made possible by the work
of six tiny motors. Each of the five fingers is articulated and has one motor
dedicated to its joint flexing for autonomous control. It also features an
opposable thumb, so the device can perform different grasping actions.  

The prototype integrates the two types of human senses - one senses where
parts of the body are relative to other parts, whether our fingers are open
or closed, for example, while the other relates to taste, touch, sound,
hearing, and sight that tell us about the external world.  

Read the entire article at:
http://istresults.cordis.lu/index.cfm/section/news/tpl/article/BrowsingType/Features/ID/79407

Links:
CYBERHAND Project
http://www.cyberhand.org/

CYBERHAND factsheet on Cordis
http://icadc.cordis.lu/fep-cgi/srchidadb?ACTION=D&CALLER=PROJ_IST&QM_EP_RCN_A=63258

Future and Emerging Technologies
http://www.cordis.lu/ist/fet/ro-sy1.htm

Contact:
Paolo Dario 
Professor of Biomedical Robotics 
IEEE Fellow 
Director, Polo Sant'Anna Valdera 
Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna 
Piazza Martiri della Libertà, 33 
I-56127 Pisa 
Italy 

CRIM & ARTS Labs 
Polo Sant'Anna Valdera 
Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna 
Viale Rinaldo Piaggio 34 
I-56025 Pontedera (Pisa) 
Italy 
+39-050-883400/401
+39-050-883402 fax
dario@sssup.it