Video shows crawling robot hand with big ‘Addams Family’ vibes

Only a few weeks removed from seeing a bunch strange robots time CES:scientists have introduced a new innovation to the world scary robotics — the detachable creepy robot arm.

Of course, one person’s creepy is another’s awesome, and it’s an impressive little bot that invites instant comparisons to the Thing, a sentient, crawling hand. The Addams Family.

How? is published Communications of natureA group of scientists and first author Xiao Gao recently introduced a new type of robotic arm. Videos published alongside the paper show how the hand can detach from its arm and crawl with its fingers like a spider.

A detachable robot is not constrained by the limitations of the human hand. While its six fingers aren’t too far off from the five digits on our hands, everything else about this little creepy crawly is pretty different. For example, the fingers can bend backward as well as forward, so the robot can hold objects on either side of its base (or palm, if you want to visualize it with human anatomy). It is even able to carry small objects on its back (or belly) while doing so using its free toes for locomotion.

Obviously, these features will be most useful in industrial settings, but maybe one day robots this too will find its way into the homes of ordinary people.