Book 15, Question 141
How Can You Build a Cardboard Robot Arm That Really Grips?
You can build a cardboard robot arm that really grips with cardboard strips, paper fasteners, string, and a rubber band! The strips are the arm parts, and the fasteners are the joints. A string closes the gripper, and a rubber band opens it.
More fun facts
- You can build a simple robot gripper with drinking straws and string.
- It's easiest when one string controls all the fingers at once, like an arcade claw.
- A gripper can have two simple fingers or a full humanlike hand.
- The gripping part at the end of a robot arm is called the end effector.
- Professional engineers still struggle to build a robot hand as good as a human one.
Sources: Scientific American, NASA
Questions kids ask
How do you control the fingers?
By pulling strings. One string can move all the fingers at once.