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A joint venture past General Motors and NASA to create a "RoboGlove" that amplifies mitt force for astronauts in space is coming down to world. GM hopes the force-multiplying, bombardment-powered glove will reduce musculus fatigue as well as double or triple the strength of a worker's mitt.

GM has licensed the glove to Swedish biomedical firm Bioservo Technologies AB for refinement and "to address other issues," too equally to include Bioservo'south SEM (soft actress musculus) technology in a production glove.

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Assistive hand makes lite work

Pressure sensors in the fingertips decide when the user is grasping or manipulating an object. Where the tool would need, say, xv-xx pounds of pressure to hold a work tool, the user needs to apply just 5-10 pounds. Synthetic tendons in the glove provide the extra strength. Power comes from a battery pack on the user's waist.

In improver to getting more grip with less pressure, the RoboGlove may reduce fatigue in hand muscles. According to GM, inquiry shows fatigue can affect the worker later merely a few minutes gripping the same tool. Co-ordinate to Kurt Wiese, vice president of GM Global Manufacturing Engineering, "The successor to RoboGlove can reduce the amount of force that a worker needs to exert when operating a tool for an extended time or with repetitive motions."

The RoboGlove developed by GM and NASA is a "force multipler" that adds strength and grip to the human hand to allow more consistent effort when performing repetitive tasks. Research shows fatigue can occur within a few minutes of continuously gripping a tool. GM is licensing the RoboGlove intellectual property to Bioservo Technologies AB, a Swedish medical technologies company that will combine RoboGlove with its owner patented SEM glove technology.

RoboGlove tin grip harder, but it cannot lift a heavy tool off a table and then concord it in place against the work piece. Tomas Ward, CEO of Bioservo Technologies, said RoboGlove is an important footstep toward producing a force amplifying exoskeleton for humans. Other automakers and tech companies are researching exoskeletons as strength amplifiers, including BMW, Hyundai, and Panasonic. A human with extraordinary strength from the exoskeleton might be more than flexible than a fork lift truck or robot — non to mention make motorcar mill tours more than exciting.

GM said it does non have a timetable for bringing the gloves onto the factory floor for widespread deployment. But it does want to be the offset automaker with the special gloves. Automakers already have special lifts for helping place fifty-fifty moderately heavy objects in place, such as windshield drinking glass.

Other applications for RoboGlove

GM, NASA, and Bioservo all say RoboGlove has important medical applications. During rehab, a patient might quickly gain the gripping forcefulness he or she had before the illness. For someone forced to live with limited hand dexterity, RoboGlove could give the person the ability he had 25 years ago to open a jar of jam — if just he can recollect, once he's back from donning the glove, what jar it was he wanted to open.