A New Army Robot Has Creepily Nimble Fingers

Robots aren’t renowned for their ability to perform the delicate tasks that humans find straightforward. But the US Army has taken delivery of a new ‘bot that’s really quite handy.

The HDMS 551s1 robot, made by Resquared, is, admittedly, controlled by a human operator. But its pair of arms, two-fingered grippers and accurate motor systems allow it to happily perform all kinds of manipulation. It can unscrew bottles, open bags and, err, play with toys.

Clearly, it would be better if it could do it all by itself rather than requiring the input of a real human being, but it’s nonetheless impressive technology. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the robot is going to be used for bomb disposal operations.

[Resquared via CNET]