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epflnews/Youtube

This ultra-fast robot arm is better at catching stuff than you are

Just look at it catch everything in sight.

SWISS RESEARCHERS HAVE developed a robot arm that can catch a variety of objects thrown at it.

The arm, which is 1.5 metres long and developed at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL), has three joints and a four-fingered hand – one which functions as a thumb – is able to catch items like a tennis racket, and a bottle without assistance.

The researchers developed a system where the arm can be moved in real-time by a human who teaches it how to catch a tossed object. The process, called “programming by demonstration”, mimics the same way people learn.

Once it’s figured out how to catch one, the arm uses a camera-based tracking system to refine its movements so it can catch tossed items before they hit the ground. The result: the arm can make adjustments – in as few as five-hundreds of a second – to catch objects thrown at it.

Just look at that technique.

Catching robot arm epflnews / YouTube epflnews / YouTube / YouTube

And here are the researchers speaking about the project in more detail.

epflnews / YouTube

Read: Mind-controlled prosthetic arm approved by US medical authorities >

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12 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute Jim McGourty
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    May 12th 2014, 9:22 PM

    Wait until it becomes self aware, the craic will be over then.

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    Mute David
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    May 12th 2014, 9:12 PM

    would it catch a grenade for me?

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    Mute larry
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    May 12th 2014, 9:35 PM

    Catch the clap in coppers

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    Mute Eircom_Sucks
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    May 12th 2014, 9:29 PM

    Can’t beat a good hand job

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    Mute david dickson
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    May 12th 2014, 9:11 PM

    It could’nt catch a cold.

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    Mute Jimbo
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    May 12th 2014, 9:06 PM

    Coolest thing ever!

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    Mute Alan Houlihan
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    May 12th 2014, 9:52 PM

    Hasta la vista baby

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    Mute me so harney
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    May 12th 2014, 9:06 PM

    It can catch anything … As long as it’s covered in sensors so the arm knows where it is, what it’s shape is and precisely what speed and trajectory is travelling at … wow …

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    Mute Jimbo
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    May 12th 2014, 9:10 PM

    It’s a first step.

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    Mute FlopFlipU
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    May 12th 2014, 9:17 PM

    Catch on to yourself

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    Mute TOP CAT
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    May 12th 2014, 9:34 PM

    Knuckle shuffle no thanks……..

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    Mute Keith Faherty
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    May 12th 2014, 10:40 PM

    Unbelievable

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