Human-Controlled Robot Arms Like You’d See in the Movies, Only Now They’re Real

This goes a bit beyond the scope of your average at-home DIY project, but is definitely something that should inspire us to keep pushing our limits.

© 2011 ksl.com | KSL Broadcasting Salt Lake City UT
 
SALT LAKE CITY — Visualize a robot that can mirror your exact movements, but with remarkable strength and dexterity.
 
Utah’s premier robot builders have come up with yet another machine that could change the way humans work in dangerous environments.
 
Engineers at Raytheon-Sarcos in Salt Lake City demonstrated a unique set of tele-operated robotic arms attached to a modified Ditch Witch. With no training at all, one immediately meshes with the feelings and actions of the machine. It mirrored everything one does with their arms, wrists and shoulders.
 
As Vice President of Operations Fraser Smith describes, “every way you move, your three degrees of freedom in your wrist, the one in your elbow and the three in your shoulder –the slave arms can move the same way you do.”
 
The robot translates movements with what is called “force reflection.” In the hands of the machine is incredible strength and agility, depending on what is needed to fulfill the task at hand.