European robotics researchers lend a hand

The Cyberhand team not only has tried to develop a hand that would provide greater grip and control for an amputee, but it also has been concerned about the hand’s aesthetics.

Giovanni Stellin, one of the Cyberhand researchers, said many patients were ashamed or self-conscious about using the less sophisticated, pincer-mechanism, prosthetic hands developed after World War II and still on the market.

Cyberhand would be attached to amputees below the elbow and covered by several layers of synthetic material that would seek to copy the features of a natural hand by making the prosthetic replacement soft, compliant, and flexible.

Patton says it represents “the first prosthetic hand that really is fully integrated into the nervous system.” Linked to the nerves by tiny electrodes and biomimetic sensors, it would let patients sense the position and movement of the hand as well as stimuli from the outside environment.

Though researchers in the United States have covered similar ground, they have not addressed the problems of electrodes, prosthesis, sensory feedback, control, and processing of commands all together, said Silvestro Micera, a Cyberhand researcher.

That type of teamwork is more likely to flourish in Europe, where technology partners are accustomed to working in transnational consortiums, said Micera.

What remains to be seen, Patton says, is whether the materials used for Cyberhand will be compatible with the human body, how a patient’s brain will adapt and how the hand can be powered.

Shape-shifting robot
Another project touted by European officials is HYDRA, a project coordinated from Denmark that is developing the world’s first shape-shifting robot. It is made up of modules, each containing its own processors, batteries, sensors and actuators, which can attach and detach from each other so the robot can change its physical form.

Such a robot could be used, for example, in relief efforts after an earthquake, said Henrik Hautop Lund, a professor at the University of Southern Denmark and HYDRA’s coordinator. Having driven to a site, the robot could transform into a crawler to climb over debris, a snake to get through a hole, or columns to hold up a collapsed building and protect a survivor.

HYDRA has developed 100 modules, and Lund is looking for industrial partners who would invest in manufacturing the robot and put it to use. The project, begun in 2001, has received $2.1 million — about two-thirds of its total funding — from the EU.

Like Dario, Lund argues that Europe has an advantage in its more integrated approach to robotics. But he also notes the financial constraints.

Member states have failed to agree in recent months on the EU’s 2007-2013 budget, so researchers still don’t know how much support they will receive, sparking concern that projects could lose momentum.

“One of the problems Europe has had in its robotics research has been getting it out to market as product,” said Ken Young, chairman of the British Automation and Robotics Association.

“While we may have a good research network at (the) academic level, I don’t see the big industrial players getting involved to the extent they do in Japan and Korea. Ultimately it is these people who will take it to market and make it a success. ... In the EU it strikes me we develop some great technology and then leave it for the rest of the world to pick up and exploit.”

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