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Swiss researchers unveil a robot hand that walks on its fingers

ETH Zurich's hand is built on a standard commercial model with twenty joints and was tested on fourteen surfaces; the Addams Family comparisons write themselves.

Photo: Gnsin · CC BY-SA 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons · altered by BBN, shared under CC BY-SA 3.0
▶ As it aired · Tech

Watch it as it aired: Hank Ledger and Gloria Vance on this story, from The Bonk-o-Meter at 9:48 AM ET. Cartoon anchors, real headline: the facts are UPI's, the jokes are ours.

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  1. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorSwiss researchers have built a disembodied robot hand that walks on its fingers, UPI reports.

  2. Gloria Vance · World News AnchorThe claim under review: that a hand, detached from any arm, any body, any chain of command, can govern its own movements.

  3. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorIt's a standard commercial hand with five fingers and twenty joints.

  4. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe team trained it in a simulator rather than redesigning the fingers, according to Futurism.

  5. Gloria Vance · World News AnchorEvidence for: it was tested on fourteen surfaces, including carpet, gravel and grass. Few delegations get through that much terrain with their dignity.

  6. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorIt also pressed the right keyboard key twenty-nine times out of thirty-two, while standing on four fingers.

  7. Gloria Vance · World News AnchorAnd the catch: it fell, and righted itself only twenty-one times in twenty-five.

  8. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorFour times it stayed down. I know the feeling.

  9. Gloria Vance · World News AnchorRating: Mildly Bonkers. The hand is real; the Addams Family comparison is merely accurate.

  10. Hank Ledger · Lead AnchorThe researchers picture placing it near a space too small for a full robot, and letting it crawl inside. That's the plan.

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