The researchers have been trying to create robots with the manual dexterity to operate the machines people regularly encounter in everyday life, whether they are plain old computers, drinks vending machines, bus/tram/train ticketing machines or shopping mall info kiosks.
Shashank Priya and Nicholas Thayer of Virginia Tech have now designed a robotic hand, called "dexterous anthropomorphic robotic typing hand" (DART), that they hope to optimise for keyboard work, reports New Scientist.
"DART is being optimised for use by the humanoid robots being developed to assist elderly people who want to operate computers and other machines. And they will be able to do this by giving the robot voice commands,” they said.
As a first step, Thayer and Priya ruled out pneumatic artificial muscles, shape memory alloys and electroactive polymers as either too bulky or too inefficient to drive their keyboard-clacking digits.
