European robotics researchers lend a hand

updated 4:55 p.m. ET Dec. 4, 2005

PONTEDERA, Italy - The metallic fingers close around yours in near-perfect synchrony, then tighten their grip as you try to pull away.

For now, it is a computer that orders “Cyberhand” to greet you at the robotics lab where researchers have spent the past 3 1/2 years creating the first prosthetic hand capable of eliciting natural sensory signals.

If all goes well, researchers say this bionic hand could be implanted on human arms two years from now, its wired joints discreetly covered by a synthetic glove.

Cyberhand would allow the maimed to have “the feeling of touching things,” says Paolo Dario, the project’s coordinator at the Polo Sant’Anna Valdera institute in this central Italian town.

The hand is the fruit of cooperation between six teams working in four European countries — Italy, Germany, Spain and Denmark. For Dario, it is also an example of Europe’s enormous — but still relatively underfunded — potential in the fast-expanding field of robotics.

“We have a network, we know how to work together. We are ready to make a leap ahead,” he said.

Financed with $1.8 million from a special European Union fund for emerging technologies, Cyberhand was cited as a success by European Commission officials in October when they appealed to governments and industry to give robotics more financial backing.

Increased funding is essential, they said, if Europe is to exploit robotics’ vast economic potential and compete with projects in the United States, Japan, and South Korea.

Each year, the commission and EU nations combined spend $100 million on robotics research. Japan and Korea each spend about the same, while the United States spends up to $500 million — largely because of the huge demand for military-related robotics, researchers and EU officials say.

In Dario’s view, Europe’s strength in robotics is in a broad approach that is also perhaps more sensitive to the social and ethical issues raised by the increasing use of robots to help humans with everyday tasks.

The Cyberhand team and other European robotics research groups have been more apprehensive than the Japanese about bringing robotic technology into everyday life, says James L. Patton, a research scientist at the Rehabilitation Institute of Chicago who has closely followed the Cyberhand project.

“They’ve been pioneers in launching those considerations: what is an acceptable practice for robots, how do we make robots safe, are they safe, psychologically how will they influence people and their behavior?”

In contrast, several robotics experts said, Japanese projects tend to be showier in hopes of making a media impact and attracting funding.

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