Midair Baseball Catch by a Robotic Hand Shown in New U.S. Demo

Ball-catching robot hand from the U.S. matches human accuracy

According to НВ — Техно: Foundation Robotics, based in San Francisco, has released new footage of its robotic hand catching a baseball in midair. The system is designed for the Phantom series of humanoid robots and uses tendon-driven architecture plus adaptive grasping to perform the feat.

Inside the robotic hand

Motors are placed in the forearm rather than in the fingers. Flexible tendons run through channels to each joint, and separate flexor and extensor tendons allow the fingers to make different movements. The adaptive grasping mechanism lets fingers shift sideways and change shape when interacting with objects, making the hand extremely flexible.

For positioning, the hand combines software that calculates tendon geometry with ultra-precise tunnel magnetoresistive (TMR) sensors in the joints. The sensors measure angles to fractions of a degree, and a redundant system lets the manipulator keep working even if some sensors fail.

The fingers are independently controlled and the joints are anatomically modeled, which lets the hand instantly absorb impact energy on contact and stop the ball from bouncing. Foundation Robotics continues to develop such technologies for further improvements in robotics, with potential uses in industry, medicine, sports, and daily life. These advances could make complex, high-precision tasks easier to automate, and the new footage underscores how quickly robot dexterity is improving.

As robotic technologies advance, Norwegian engineers have created robotic hands capable of assembling LEGO and sorting grapes. This innovation highlights the versatility of robotic dexterity, complementing the recent achievements in baseball catching by Foundation Robotics. Such developments not only showcase the growing precision in robotic applications but also pave the way for future automation in various sectors.