Sarcos is Developing a 'Human-Like' Robotic Hand to Help the US Navy in Safely Defusing Mines

Sarcos Robotics, together with UCLA and the University of Washington, is currently developing STARFISH - a human-like robotic that the US Navy can utilize to detach, investigate, and defuse underwater mines or any explosive devices.

As reported by Forbes, STARFISH envisions a future where a Navy expert can "feel" the item the robotic hand is holding while staying at a safe distance from any possible explosion.

Human-Like Robotic Hand

Dr. Veronica Santos at UCLA and professor Jonathan Posner at the University of Washington are researching some basic science, while Sarcos is applying it to real-world robotics.

STARFISH is an acronym for "Strong Tactile mARitime hand for Feeling, Inspecting, Sensing and Handling."

The company will need to combine at least four different but related technologies to finish the project successfully - such as enabling the robotic hand to feel a surface, understanding the object that the robot is touching at a machine level, communicating with a remote human operator, and having complex mobility.

Furthermore, the robotic hands are being designed to be autonomous so that it does not always rely on a human operator.

"Where we're moving towards is the concept of supervised autonomy, where you're pushing more of the thinking, the AI, the software, down onto the platform and letting it close the loop," Jorgen Pederson, chief operating officer of Sarcos Robotics said in a statement.

"You can have a very tight control loop locally with the robot. And then you're just providing higher level feedback commands to the operator and seeking guidance on how to move forward with the mission."

Autonomous Robot

Additionally, Sarcos is planning for the system to be able to autonomously swim to the general region where a threat has been identified, locate it, attach an explosive device to it, and then "render it safe," as Pederson puts it, from a proper distance.

For the Maritime Mine Neutralization System program, the US Navy granted the Sarcos a $9.5 million contract in 2021.

However, this technology has non-military applications, such as the maintenance of intricate offshore infrastructure for the oil and gas sector.

The three fingers that STARFISH now possesses are accurate enough to hold a pair of tweezers as well as heavier objects. Additionally, the grippers' sensorized fingertips can sense normal, and shear stresses thanks to the multimodal tactile sensor skin on the device, according to the company.

Sarcos has so far succeeded in developing and successfully testing the STARFISH hand. The company said that official sea trials are coming soon.

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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla