Robots with fingernails can grasp thin edges

What’s Happening

Okay so A robotic hand with fingernail-like tips lets robots peel fruit, open lids and pick up thin, flat objects with more precise, human-like dexterity.

News Tech Robots with fingernails can grasp thin edges A new three-fingered hand peels fruit, flips cards and lifts coins off flat surfaces ⏸ The three-fingered hand peels an orange using the rigid nails to grasp and puncture the fruit’s skin. The nails can also pop the top of a thin lid. (plot twist fr)

Kang et al /arXiv, 2026 By Ananya at 9:00 am this: via email (Opens in new window) Email on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit on X (Opens in new window) X Print (Opens in new window) Print Robotic hands are getting their nails done.

The Details

Researchers have designed a new three-fingered robotic hand whose digits come with a rigid fingernail on soft material. The design gives the robotic hand the ability to peel fruit, open containers with lids and pick up flat objects , the team posted to arXiv.

The results offer a glimpse at the kinds of real‑world chores and industrial handling tasks the robot could do. The tips of most conventional robotic hands have a soft pad on a rigid structure, giving the fingertip a squarish shape.

Why This Matters

The new robot fingertips have a soft material wrapped around the finger “skeleton,” with a rigid structure on top, giving the tip an oval shape, more like our fingers. “A square shape only adapts well to forces coming straight on, but our design can also respond flexibly to twisting or side forces,” says mechanical engineer Dong Ho Kang of the University of Texas at Austin. For our We summarize the week’s scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.

The scientific community tends to find developments like this significant.

Key Takeaways

• Soft fingertips with that square design adapt to objects and grasp them, but that same softness makes them less precise.
• In humans, rigid fingernails on soft fingertips correct this issue fingertips and focusing pressure.
• A new three-fingered robotic hand sports rigid fingernails on soft, flexible fingers.

The Bottom Line

A new three-fingered robotic hand sports rigid fingernails on soft, flexible fingers. The fingernails help the robotic hand peel fruit, open containers with lids and even pick up thin, flat objects that are usually difficult for robots to handle.

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