Scientists from the United States from Virginia Tech have developed a robotic hand that has the ability to hold objects between his fingers as hard as a can of canned or as fragile as a raw egg. This hand is also driven only by air pressure, which according to its creators to be an advantage opens many doors in the market for robotic prostheses. The hand will be developed for the first humanoid robot biped walking and manufactured entirely in United States: Charlie. With it, it will be able to pick up objects as you would a person. Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory (Romel) College of Engineering Virginia Tech

(Polytechnic Institute and State University of Virginia) has developed a robot that can only hold objects firmly as hard as a can of preserves or as delicate as a raw egg, as well as being able to make gestures of sign language. According to the magazine Newswise, the robot has been christened Raphael (Air Powered Robotic Hand with Elastic Ligaments or "Robot Hand Driven by Air with elastic ligaments), and consists of a fully articulated robotic hand and driven by an air compressor tank a pressure of more than 4 atmospheres and a novel activator tube type accordion. A number of commands included in the microcontroller device generates the movement necessary to coordinate the movement of the fingers. Driven by air: According to the director of this project, Dennis Hong, "Design of air power is what makes this hand only because it (the machine) does not require any motor or other actuators. In addition, grip strength can be adjusted easily, just by changing air pressure. "The grip is derived from the amount of air pressure. A low pressure can be used to hold a lighter, while allowing a greater pressure powerful grip. The adjustment of compressed air also helps with grip, as it allows the fingers to follow the contour of the object grasped naturally. According to Hong, therefore, "this hand has a great potential market in the field of robotic prostheses, in addition to its low cost, security and simplicity." RAPHAEL to CHARLIE: In fact, Raphael is only part of a larger project of Romel: a humanoid robot known as CHARLIE (Cognitive Robot With Human Intelligence Learning or Cognitive Humanoid Robot with Learning Intelligence). When the hand, the second prototype developed by engineers, is connected to Charlie, he will be able to pick up objects, not just to hold and grab them as you would a person. Hong says that Charlie is the first humanoid robot biped walking and size that has been manufactured entirely in the United States. It measures just over one and a half meters, and is used in a general humanoid research platform, and also by the RoboCup project in 2010. This international project aims to promote, through competitions integrated autonomous robots, research and education on artificial intelligence. Hong says that he hopes one day Charlie stroll around the campus of Virginia Tech in the light of potential new students and visitors to the University. This concept has been awarded in the 2008-2009 edition of the Compressed Air and Gas Institute, Cleveland, United States, which distributes each year a prize for best innovation project forward. Other artifacts Romel: Romel is currently working on multiple projects for the development of robots. Among them, the robot is STRIDE, an experimental robot dynamic three feet, the impasse, with speech-driven system, the MARS, a robotic system of multiple appendages or the circus, a robot for inspection of compressed air. On the other hand, Romel Darwin is also developing a dynamic anthropomorphic robot with intelligence, CLIMBER, an intelligent robot that has arms and Charlie, who take the hand of Raphael. In talking recently Tendencias21 addition, another project from this laboratory consists of a trio of robots designed to take the place of tasks in workers at risk, as the inspection of buildings to high bridge pillars or submerged in water . The three robots, snake-shaped, are HyDRAS-Ascent The Ascent HyDRAS-II, and the circus, all autonomous and designed to scale buildings with scaffolding and swing movements. These machines are in it with sensors and cameras to inspect structures that allow or carry out other tasks now performed by humans, and are dangerous. Each is approximately one meter in length. The HyDRAS operate with electric motors, while the muscle CIRCA uses a compressed air (like the hand RAPHAEL. For now, these robots operate with a cable that goes attached to a laptop, but its creators intend to become more independent, using a microprocessor and a power source themselves.