What you’re looking at is the world’s smallest robotic hand in action. Small enough, and with a delicate enough touch, to grasp a single fish egg without squeezing it to drippy bits. It was developed by Yen-Wen Lu and Chang-Jin Kim of UCLA’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department.
The hand is made of silicon segments connected by polymer-balloon joints. Inflating and deflating the balloons controls the four-fingered hand. The materials and pneumatics used make it good for use with biological samples, in liquid or air. Damn, that’s cool.
Getting a Grip on the World’s Smallest Robotic Hand [Physics Buzz via Slashdot]