Extra robotic thumb lets wearers complete two-handed tasks with one hand

“ns, without requiring the user to issue explicit commands." Fu and his colleagues developed an initial prototype of their robotic thumb. In this prototype, the AI model analyzing camera images and planning future movements runs on an external computer that is connected to the robotic thumb. The researchers evaluated EgoThumb in laboratory experiments in which three wearers attempted four manipulation tasks. These inc”

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“ble robotic finger could help hold objects while leaving my own fingers free to work." Credit: Jianyu Hou et al Enhancing one-hand manipulation with an extra thumb Fu and his colleagues set out to develop a compact, wearable robotic system that could serve as an extra thumb to hold objects in place while a wearer's fingers manipulate them. In addition, they wanted the thumb to autonomously determine when to grasp and”

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“same areas used during training, average success across four tasks was 90% for the demonstrator and 92.5% and 87.5% for two new users." In a separate tea-stirring test, success rates averaged approximately 67% and 73% across three users in two previously unseen settings, respectively. The researchers found that performance declined on some tasks when they expanded the areas where objects were initially found or had”

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“same areas used during training, average success across four tasks was 90% for the demonstrator and 92.5% and 87.5% for two new users." In a separate tea-stirring test, success rates averaged approximately 67% and 73% across three users in two previously unseen settings, respectively. The researchers found that performance declined on some tasks when they expanded the areas where objects were initially found or had”

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“o new wearers and the initial demonstrator achieved comparable success rates when objects were placed within the same areas the AI algorithm encountered during training. "The most encouraging finding is that EgoThumb can learn to coordinate with a human hand without requiring the user to explicitly command each grasp," said Fu. "In our initial evaluation, with 10 trials per task per user and objects placed within the”

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“ns, without requiring the user to issue explicit commands." Fu and his colleagues developed an initial prototype of their robotic thumb. In this prototype, the AI model analyzing camera images and planning future movements runs on an external computer that is connected to the robotic thumb. The researchers evaluated EgoThumb in laboratory experiments in which three wearers attempted four manipulation tasks. These inc”

Exact source · revision 2

science-x

“mages of the user's hand, the robotic thumb and nearby objects. "We trained an AI model to learn from human demonstrations, an approach called imitation learning," explained Fu. "To collect the training demonstrations, a person controlled the robotic thumb through a foot-operated interface. Once trained, the model predicts the robotic thumb's movements directly from camera images and the thumb's current joint positio”

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“luded picking up a cube, unscrewing a bottle cap, stirring tea and transferring a ball from one location to another. The extra thumb helped wearers complete each type of task using only one hand. EgoThumb demonstrates grasping and holding assistance across four tasks, shown from left to right: picking up a cube, unscrewing a bottle cap, stirring tea and transferring a ball. Credit: EgoThumb research team (Jianyu Hou,”

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“luded picking up a cube, unscrewing a bottle cap, stirring tea and transferring a ball from one location to another. The extra thumb helped wearers complete each type of task using only one hand. EgoThumb demonstrates grasping and holding assistance across four tasks, shown from left to right: picking up a cube, unscrewing a bottle cap, stirring tea and transferring a ball. Credit: EgoThumb research team (Jianyu Hou,”

Exact source · revision 2

science-x

“luded picking up a cube, unscrewing a bottle cap, stirring tea and transferring a ball from one location to another. The extra thumb helped wearers complete each type of task using only one hand. EgoThumb demonstrates grasping and holding assistance across four tasks, shown from left to right: picking up a cube, unscrewing a bottle cap, stirring tea and transferring a ball. Credit: EgoThumb research team (Jianyu Hou,”

Exact source · revision 2

science-x

“luded picking up a cube, unscrewing a bottle cap, stirring tea and transferring a ball from one location to another. The extra thumb helped wearers complete each type of task using only one hand. EgoThumb demonstrates grasping and holding assistance across four tasks, shown from left to right: picking up a cube, unscrewing a bottle cap, stirring tea and transferring a ball. Credit: EgoThumb research team (Jianyu Hou,”

Exact source · revision 2

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