ETH Zurich's severed robot hand walks on its fingers and types on a keyboard

Engineers at ETH Zurich's Soft Robotics Lab equipped an off-the-shelf mechanical hand with five fingers and 20 actuated joints with a battery, motion sensors and a tiny computer, bringing it to 1.8 pounds. Using reinforcement learning, the hand learned to balance on its uneven fingers, traverse 14 surface types and type with 29 of 32 correct key presses.

• The hand weighs 1.8 pounds and has 20 actuated joints
• Reinforcement learning gave each finger its own movement timing
• Field tests covered carpet, gravel, grass and metal across 14 environments
• Typing accuracy hit 29 of 32 keys; it also plays Sokoban