Rise of the killer robots? Scientists develop an indestructible robotic hand that can withstand being pounded by pistons or bashed with a hammer

A huge, super-fast, indestructible robot hand might seem like a terrifying prop from a science fiction movie.

But this hefty 4.1kg hand is very real and is already being used to develop the next generation of AI robots.

Designed by the British Shadow Robot Company, this three-fingered claw can go from fully open to closed in just 500 milliseconds.

However, the robot hand is still strong enough to withstand a blow from hammers or pistons.

That toughness is designed to help the hand survive the rigorous and often destructive process of teaching AI how to interact with the world.

About 50 percent larger than a human hand and with only three fingers, this robot doesn’t seem as human as many other robots.

However, according to Rich Walker, director of Shadow Robot Company, that chunky design is a necessary trade-off.

Designed over four years with AI company Google Deepmind, the hand’s main goal is to teach AI.

While robots on factory floors can follow simple routines, such as moving metal sheets from one place to another, the real world requires more complex movements.

For robots to perform more complex tasks or act autonomously, they need AI to power their motor controls.

But the process of teaching AI to control a robot is one that can be extremely expensive and destructive to the robots involved.

UK-based Shadow Robot Company’s latest robotic hand is designed to withstand the rigorous and often destructive process of training AI

Mr Walker told MailOnline: ‘If you’ve ever watched a baby learn, they move around randomly at the beginning of the process before he starts to connect those movements with what he sees in front of him.’

When you give AI control over a robot, the process is very similar, with the only difference being that robots are not as resilient as humans.

To learn a simple task like picking up objects, AIs must undertake thousands of repeated trial-and-error attempts.

Last year, researchers at UC Berkeley used this technique to teach an AI how to pick up laundry through repetition.

However, these early stages of the learning process are often so erratic that it is not uncommon for robots to shake themselves apart.

Shadow Robot Company director Rich Waker (pictured) says training AI leads to rapid random movements that can often shake robots to bits. This meant they had to design a much larger, sturdier option

Mr. Walker explained, “What you and I call touching something, people in the robotics community call collision.

‘Robots generally avoid collisions because collisions are bad, they cause damage.’

To prevent robots from simply smashing themselves to pieces as they learn, Shadow Robot Company has had to make its hand extremely hard.

Shadow Robot Company uses a combination of larger, more resilient parts and motor controls that allow the fingers to move during impact and prevent damage.

Each finger is also a modular part, so it can be quickly replaced if damaged.

However, to be useful in machine learning development, the hand must also be sensitive.

Each fingertip has hundreds of tiny cameras beneath its surface that focus on the inside of the skin.

This hand weighs 4.5 kg (9.9 lbs), with each finger weighing a hefty 1.2 kg (2.6 lbs), making it resistant to hitting with hammers or hitting with pistons

As the hand grasps an object, these cameras detect how the skin is deformed and can determine how hard or soft the object is.

Mr Walker says the hand is currently in production so there is no confirmed price at the moment.

However, he told MailOnline: ‘This won’t be a cheap robot, but it will be cheaper than other robots we’ve made in the past.’

He explains that the robotic hand is actually cheaper to manufacture than some others because it was designed with replacement parts and ease of repair in mind.

Although the hand was developed for and with DeepMind, Walker says it will also be sold to other companies and research institutions.

He adds that robotics researchers he’s spoken to are excited about “robots that we can now hit.”