Researchers at University College London and his colleagues have made a simple soft robotic hand that can prevent an object from slipping with only wrist motions. They started out by making a human-like hand using a 3D-printed plastic skeleton and soft, moulded silicone material. To mimic the way human skin feels pressure, they added 32 flexible pressure sensors to the robot’s palm and fingers.
Finally, they connected the hand to a movable arm with a motor in the wrist, which made the wrist the only part of the device that could move. All the sensors were wired to a computer to collect readings. To train the hand, the researchers lowered it onto various objects, then tried different wrist motions, which made the springy fingers contort around the objects, to grip them and pick them up.
More information:
https://www.newscientist.com/article/2368541-soft-robot-hand-learns-how-to-avoid-butter-fingers/