Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2020/06/04/wearable-robotic-third-arm.html
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3 Likes
It needs repositioned to where the 3rd arm naturally goes…
10 Likes
It’s a prosthetic gripping hand!
http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/O/on-the-gripping-hand.html
6 Likes
I think you’re thinking of a 3rd leg…
8 Likes
There are walls and then there are walls. Will this arm open borders?
3 Likes
No, mine holds my beer for me.
Arm for sure 
4 Likes
Punch through a wall?
Newton and his pesky Third Law may beg to differ…
5 Likes
18 Likes
Meh, only 1/8 as cool as Doc Oct.
13 Likes
Now if only we could get working on that second head…
4 Likes
Zaphod BB8
7 Likes
I know it’s just a prototype, and thus big, absurdly clunky, and operated by a person doing tasks that would presumably be automated for a real product, but it’s funny to see it sold as “labor saving” when it requires two people to do the work of about, well, one. Yes, the arm can hand you fake fruit picked off flat, extremely unrealistic surfaces - as long as someone else controls it. Or you could just both pick fruit, at a much faster rate. (And although they have a person controlling it because it was obviously faster for prototype purposes, and they theoretically could have worked out the machine vision and coordination issues required to pick fake fruit, in a real-world situation the arm would have less ability to reach into tangles of tree limbs and even less ability to do so autonomously. So it wasn’t a great example.) Maybe they should be avoiding showing “practical” applications at this point, when they really aren’t.
5 Likes
<cue insufferable nerd voice>
ACTually, 1/4 or 5/8 as cool, depending on how you want to count it…
6 Likes
Some of the examples would make more sense if it was a rail mounted device. I realize the goal is that the human brings it to the place. For the ladder examples if it was mounted in the ladder it would work as well or better.
5 Likes
It weighs as much as a human hand, if you don’t count the 150lbs of engine and hydraulic pumps.
7 Likes
Paired with some other tech demos that are floating around, this could be extremely useful.
“Hey arm, grab that tool” - arm finds tool and holds for use, puts it away when finished.
“Hey arm, locate this part for me.” - arm highlights needed part, finds part on shelf, etc.
“Hey arm, scratch my butt” - arm calls HR…hm…
10 Likes
But can it hammer a 6-inch spike through a board?
…A girl’s gotta have her standards.
6 Likes
The wall punching action at 2:10 was pretty underwhelming. Closer to just slapping the wall.
2 Likes
That woman needs an operator…
… obviously.
Seems like it would work very well for a disabled person using voice commands.
3 Likes
