A few years ago, NASA and General Motors developed a wearable called RoboGlove, which was used by astronauts in the International Space Statoon to amplify hand strength when doing manual work in space. Well, they’re finally updating the glove for use in Earth-bound tasks with BioServo’s upcoming version of the RoboGlove.
If you’re unfamiliar with BioServo, they’re a Swedish medical technology company who already makes a glove called SEM, which helps improve the hand strength of individuals who have weakened grip due to accident or illness. Well, the outfit licensed the tech from GM and NASA, with the intent of integrating it with their own Soft Extra Muscle technology to create strength-assist gloves that can be used in healthcare, manufacturing, and other Earthly industries.
There are still very few details about the BioServo RoboGlove, although it will be using sensors, actuators, and artificial tendons to simulate the nerves, muscles, and tendons in the human hand. The goal is to develop a grasp-assist device that will increase a worker’s efficiency while reducing fatigue in the hand muscles by minimizing the amount of effort required to grip tools and equipment, while also being suitable for use in medical rehabilitation. The gloves are expected to look like slightly larger work gloves, albeit with wires running through the tethered battery pack and controller module that’s designed to be clipped to a belt.
General Motors has announced its intentions to be the first US manufacturing customer for BioServo’s RoboGlove.