The very cleverly named Handroid is a new robotic hand made by Japanese company ITK. It uses a system of tendon-like wires and their differential contraction moves every digit with precision. The hand is light and looks quite robust, in principal it appear similar to the robotic hand developed by DLR. Handroid is operated via a glove controller. The user wears the sensor-equipped glove and the robotic arm replicates his or her hand movement. The video above has a small demonstration although the product isn’t finalized yet. According to TechCrunch, ITK plans to sell it in two years for $6500. Handroid can be used for remotely manipulating objects at dangerous conditions, as a prosthetic device or in various other applications.
ITK is part of parent company’s Iwata Machinery Works Ltd, R&D department. It has a range of unusual products like a retractable walking stick or an electric weed removal tool. All these may sound like novelty gadgets but ITK is very serious about the company’s know how, this video is a brief but detailed overview of their capabilities.