MIT researchers, led by Professor H. Harry Asada, have developed a robot that enhances the grasping motion of the human hand. Worn around one’s wrist, the device works like two extra fingers adjacent to the pinky and thumb. It consists of actuators linked together to exert forces as strong as those of human fingers during a grasping motion. A control algorithm enables it to move in sync with the wearer’s fingers to grasp objects of various shapes and sizes.

According to professor Asada, “This is a prototype, but we can shrink it down to one-third its size, and make it foldable. We could make this into a watch or a bracelet where the fingers pop up, and when the job is done, they come back into the watch. Wearable robots are a way to bring the robot closer to our daily life.”