MIT researchers channel AI to turn hand gestures into robot training data - Greenwich Time
Subscribe Living # MIT researchers channel AI to turn hand gestures into robot training data By RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated PressUpdated CAMBRIDGE, Mass.
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- Zoomlion’s Z01 humanoid robot drew large crowds at KOMATEK 2026 in Istanbul, where it performed a Tai Chi routine that highlighted the company’s embodied‑AI capabilities and real‑world industrial validation in logistics, inspection and assembly tasks.
- The following day, Nvidia unveiled the Isaac GR00T Reference Humanoid at GTC Taipei, a complete development platform that pairs a Unitree H2 Plus robot with Sharpa’s five‑finger tactile hands and Jetson AGX Thor computing powered by a Blackwell GPU, aimed at accelerating research and slated for commercial availability from Unitree in late 2026.
- At the Robot Technology Japan 2026 exhibition, Agile Robots showcased its Agile ONE humanoid alongside force‑control technology, building on its recent acquisition of thyssenkrupp Automation Engineering and a research partnership with Google DeepMind.
- A CBS 60 Minutes segment aired on June 14, featuring Boston Dynamics’ Atlas learning to operate on a Hyundai factory floor, underscoring the move toward industrial deployment of AI‑powered humanoids.
- In parallel, Figure announced it is ramping up humanoid manufacturing speed and has signed a commercial agreement with Catalyst Brands to deploy humanoids across the retailer’s logistics network, while China is introducing a national digital‑ID system to track the lifecycle of humanoid robots for safety and standardization.
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MIT researchers channel AI to turn hand gestures into robot training data
By RODRIQUE NGOWI, Associated PressUpdated
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Humanoid robots struggling with tasks like grasping a cup have a new teacher — a person wearing an ultrasound wristband that captures the movement of muscles, tendons and ligaments beneath the skin.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology developed the tool to collect data of human hand motion that could eventually help robots achieve the dexterity that has been difficult for machines to master.
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In laboratory demonstrations with eight volunteers, developers showed the wristband could precisely mirror hand gestures – including all 26 letters in American Sign Language – within 120 milliseconds.
The wristband can operate wirelessly, meaning the controlling person and the receiving robot need not be in the same room.
Beyond remote control, the team sees a path toward using the wristband to build huge datasets of human motion that could eventually enable humanoids to learn dexterous tasks without human guidance.
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AP Technology Writer Matt O'Brien contributed to this report.
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RODRIQUE NGOWI
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- Beyond housework, the technology could help with other tasks that require flexing fingers and hands, such as surgery.
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The wristband uses high-frequency sound waves to “see” through its wearer's skin. It relays images of the muscle and tendon movements to a computer that uses AI to enable a nearby robotic hand to mimic the gestures.
An AI algorithm is trained to decode images generated by the device into what engineers call degrees of freedom – specific ways a joint can bend or rotate. The human hand has 22 of them.
In earlier systems, tracking even a fraction of those movements was a significant challenge.
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