New Robotic Hand Can Respond Sensitively with Muscles Created with Smart Wires

Scientists may have taken a giant leap forward in prosthetics. They've created an artificial hand with muscles made from shape-memory wire. The new technology allows for the creation of flexible and lightweight robot hands not only for prosthetics, but also for industrial applications.

The shape-memory wire is made of bundles of ultrafine nickel-titanium alloy wires that are able to tense and flex. The material itself also has sensory properties that gives an artificial hand extremely precise movements.

The hand is extraordinarily mobile and adaptable, so it's no wonder that scientists are trying to mimic the hand with robotics. However, the interaction between the muscles, ligaments, tendons, bones and nerves is difficult to replicate. Now, though, researchers have turned to a new technology based on the shape memory properties of nickel-titanium alloy.

"Shape-memory alloy (SMA) wires offer significant advantages over other techniques," said Stefan Seelecke, one of the researchers, in a news release. "In contrast, tools fabricated with artificial muscles from SMA wire can do without additional equipment, making them light, flexible and highly adaptable. They operate silently and are relatively cheap to produce. And these wires have the highest energy density of all known drive mechanisms, which enables them to perform powerful movements in restricted spaces."

The term "shape memory" actually refers to the fact that the wire can "remember" its shape and return to that shape after it has been deformed. When electricity runs through a wire and it heats up, the material transforms its lattice structure, causing it to contract like a muscle.

The researchers used these wires to take the place of muscles in the artificial hand. In the end, they created an artificial hand which could use high tensile force and could conducted fast and smooth finger movements.

The researchers plan to exhibit the prototype of the artificial hand at Hannover Messe, the world's largest industrial fair.

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