No it’s not the world’s tiniest assembler of tobiko nigiri (yum), it’s Microhand!

Microhand is being developed by the UCLA Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems program (oo talk dirty to me), part of the UCLA Engineering department. The leader of the project is Dr. Chang-Jin (CJ) Kim, who says: “It is the world’s smallest robotic hand, and [it] could be used to perform microsurgery.”.

From Technology Review:

The “microhand” measures one millimeter across when closed into a fist. It consists of four “fingers,” each of which is made from six silicon wafers, with polymer balloons doing the work of “muscles” at the wafers’ joints.

Each balloon is connected with narrow channels through which air is pumped in or out. When a balloon is inflated, the distance between two joints decreases, and the finger flexes inward. Upon deflation, the fingers relax. And with selective inflation and deflation, researchers are able to manipulate the fingers into clasping or releasing an object.

This mechanism is just perfectly elegant. The economy of motion, the gas-driven design, and doesn’t it just make you want to PINCH ITS LIL TENTACLES????

Okay maybe that’s just me, but for all those who like tentacle pinching AND hardcore micro electro-mechanical concept action, see the groovy delights at the MEMS Research page.

[Via The Raw Feed]

This entry was posted on Monday, March 12th, 2007 at 11:14 am and is filed under Cool Robot of the Week, Neat Stuff. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.