High-Speed Robot Hand Demonstrates Dexterity and Skillful Manipulation

This is just too cool! I give it to you with minimal text or alteration. I suggest just watching the video, and leave it at that:

A few blogs are passing around videos of the Ishikawa Komuro Lab's high-speed robot hand performing impressive acts of dexterity and skillful manipulation. However, the video being passed around is slight on details. Meanwhile, their video presentation at ICRA 2009 (which took place in May in Kobe, Japan) has an informative narration and demonstrates additional capabilities. I have included this video below, which shows the manipulator dribbling a ping-pong ball, spinning a pen, throwing a ball, tying knots, grasping a grain of rice with tweezers, and tossing / re-grasping a cellphone!

Here is the video:

Based on the video, the hand uses high-speed actuators with harmonic drive gears. The hand can close in 1/10th of a second! Personally, I find the tweezers grasping the grain of rice the most entertaining -- very anthropomorphic.

If you'd like to learn more about this (and other) robots from the Ishikawa Komuro Lab, see their website.