GM and NASA Create Superhuman "RoboGlove" Technology, Sounds Like a Terrible Movie

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Not too long ago, engineers from General Motors and NASA stood around a glove, thinking, we can rebuilt this — better, stronger, more dexterous than before.

Well, they did, and now RoboGlove — a term that conjures up images of a vaguely 1980s dystopian future — will soon get its manufacturing debut at the end of select GM workers’ arms.

GM announced its plan to use RoboGloves at its assembly plants yesterday, which makes it the first U.S. manufacturing customer for the technology. Originally created through a partnership with NASA for use on the International Space Station, the robotic glove was presumably used for screwing things really hard in outer space.

Back on Earth, GM entered into a licensing agreement with Swedish medical technology company Bioservo Technologies AB, which plans to incorporate technology from its trademarked SEM (“Extra Soft Muscle”) Glove. The battery-powered robotic exoskeleton will be marketed to the medical and manufacturing sectors.

Each RoboGlove is filled with sensors and actuators, and functions through electronically controlled tendons and muscles. This allows the wearer’s hand to become many times more powerful than normal. Futuristic? Yes. But it’s 2016, and it’s about time were allowed ourselves to become partially robotic.

Bioservo plans to adopt a grasp assist device into the assembly that prevents hand fatigue in the wearer. This feature will be useful for workers who are required to grasp tools for extended periods of time.

The refined RoboGlove will be tested at some GM plants next year before going on the market. If the technology takes off, there’s a good chance we’ll see more advanced exoskeletons in industry in the future. If it makes the job easier, workers will likely embrace it, as long as there’s still a salaried human working inside it.

[Image: General Motors/NASA]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Shortest Circuit Shortest Circuit on Jul 08, 2016

    Can I get one for my GF so I don't have to leave during a kickoff, just to open some stupid pickle jar?

  • 05lgt 05lgt on Jul 08, 2016

    The use of an adjustable crescent hammer in the pic says all I need to know about GM assembly.

  • Cprescott Fisker is another brand that Heir Yutz has killed.
  • Dwford Every country is allowed to have trade restrictions except the US.
  • 1995 SC Are there any mitigation systems that would have prevented this though? We had a ship hit a bridge in Jacksonville a few years back and it was basically dumb luck it didn't collapse. This looked like a direct hit.
  • Cprescott Oh, well.
  • 28-Cars-Later "The Chinese Ministry of Commerce claimed the Inflation Reduction Act is “discriminatory”"This what your mainstream social communism has wrought: a foreign power, major geopolitical rival and the #1 global industrial competitor cries "racism" when an act of Congress in any way presents a challenge - and the saddest part is there are Americans who will process this claim and agree if only in their own minds. To be clear, Wo xihuan Zhongguoren but the under 40yo PRC raised Mainlanders I've interacted with do believe they are a master race - but that's fine right?
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