Skip to main content

Camera-clad rubber fingertips allow robots to manipulate cables and wires

Robots that can Manipulate Cables

Tying a knot or plugging a charger into a port are tasks that require human-like dexterity, but thanks to research out of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), robots could soon be up to the task.

Recommended Videos

By embedding sensors created using rubber and cameras, the team was able to create a bot capable of working with rope, cord, and wires in a more human-like manner.

Each of the robot arm’s two fingers is equipped with sensors called GelSight. These sensors use tiny cameras embedded in soft rubber. The cameras allow the robot to understand where the cable is, its size and shape, and the force as the cable slides through two fingers.

MIT CSAIL

Understanding the cable’s physical properties and location is just one part of the equation. Next, the researchers built a framework allowing the robot to use that information to adjust movements in real-time in order to quickly work with that cable. The researchers developed a controller to regulate grip strength and a second to adjust the gripper’s position.

When put to the test, the robotic arm was able to successfully plug a pair of earbuds into a headphone jack, as well as working with thinner and thicker ropes, wires, and cables. While that may bring to mind a robot butler capable of plugging itself in at night, the technology is most likely destined to start in the automotive industry, though the researchers note the potential for the technology to one day be used in surgical sutures, industrial applications, and potential household uses.

MIT CSAIL

“Manipulating soft objects is so common in our daily lives, like cable manipulation, cloth folding, and string knotting,” Yu She, MIT postdoctoral associate and lead author, said. “In many cases, we would like to have robots help humans do this kind of work, especially when the tasks are repetitive, dull, or unsafe.”

GelSight builds on research published last month that embedded cameras into a robot gripper to pick up objects as delicate as a potato chip. The new technology allows for cable manipulation with fewer drops, longer distances, and more accuracy than previous robotics, the team says. The group plans to research additional tasks like routing cables, as well as real-world uses such as automatically manipulating cables within the automotive industry.

Hillary K. Grigonis
Hillary never planned on becoming a photographer—and then she was handed a camera at her first writing job and she's been…
This modular Pebble and Apple Watch underdog just smashed funding goals
UNA Watch

Both the Pebble Watch and Apple Watch are due some fierce competition as a new modular brand, UNA, is gaining some serous backing and excitement.

The UNA Watch is the creation of a Scottish company that wants to give everyone modular control of smartwatch upgrades and repairs.

Read more
Tesla, Warner Bros. dodge some claims in ‘Blade Runner 2049’ lawsuit, copyright battle continues
Tesla Cybercab at night

Tesla and Warner Bros. scored a partial legal victory as a federal judge dismissed several claims in a lawsuit filed by Alcon Entertainment, a production company behind the 2017 sci-fi movie Blade Runner 2049, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit accused the two companies of using imagery from the film to promote Tesla’s autonomous Cybercab vehicle at an event hosted by Tesla CEO Elon Musk at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Studios in Hollywood in October of last year.
U.S. District Judge George Wu indicated he was inclined to dismiss Alcon’s allegations that Tesla and Warner Bros. violated trademark law, according to Reuters. Specifically, the judge said Musk only referenced the original Blade Runner movie at the event, and noted that Tesla and Alcon are not competitors.
"Tesla and Musk are looking to sell cars," Reuters quoted Wu as saying. "Plaintiff is plainly not in that line of business."
Wu also dismissed most of Alcon's claims against Warner Bros., the distributor of the Blade Runner franchise.
However, the judge allowed Alcon to continue its copyright infringement claims against Tesla for its alleged use of AI-generated images mimicking scenes from Blade Runner 2049 without permission.
Alcan says that just hours before the Cybercab event, it had turned down a request from Tesla and WBD to use “an icononic still image” from the movie.
In the lawsuit, Alcon explained its decision by saying that “any prudent brand considering any Tesla partnership has to take Musk’s massively amplified, highly politicized, capricious and arbitrary behavior, which sometimes veers into hate speech, into account.”
Alcon further said it did not want Blade Runner 2049 “to be affiliated with Musk, Tesla, or any Musk company, for all of these reasons.”
But according to Alcon, Tesla went ahead with feeding images from Blade Runner 2049 into an AI image generator to yield a still image that appeared on screen for 10 seconds during the Cybercab event. With the image featured in the background, Musk directly referenced Blade Runner.
Alcon also said that Musk’s reference to Blade Runner 2049 was not a coincidence as the movie features a “strikingly designed, artificially intelligent, fully autonomous car.”

Read more
Apple TV+ just got a price slash that’s tough to resist, and it won’t last long
The Apple TV main screen.

Apple has just quietly announced that it will be slashing the price on its Apple TV+ offering for a limited time deal.

While Apple prices the service at a standard $9.99 per month usually, it has just cut that way down to $2.99 per month.

Read more