This is an interesting prototype. The hand has enough control to pick up glasses and the device is mounted on a rail that extends the length of the counter.
The device is controlled by a camera mounted over the arm. Take a look at this short video of the dish washing robot arm in action.
I'm in favor of any robots designed to perform tasks like dishwashing, even though they aren't full humanoid bots like ARMAR the kitchen robot, for example.
Fans of Robert Heinlein may recall the plans that he had for Flexible Frank, one of the robots from his 1956 novel The Door Into Summer, which had a Thorsen Memory Tube
...you need cause Flexible Frank to clear the table and scrape the dishes and load them into the dishwasher only once, and from then on he could cope with any dirty dishes he ever encountered.
Better still, he could have an electronically duplicated Thorsen tube stuck into his head and could handle dirty dishes the first time he ever encountered them . . - and never break a dish.
Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!' - Ray Cummings, 1931.
DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.' - Neal Asher, 2008.
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Tactile Skin Supplier Map
'What strange sensitivity! What an amazing development of science was manifested in every move and act and word of this Robot!'
Orb Nomad Zero-Emission Electric Aircraft
'That explains how it was so easy for me to remain motionless in midair or to perch on a flagpole in imitation of a giant bird, even in the windy city of Chicago.'
DIY Robot Scorpion Crushes It
'...it raised its front end off the ground and waved its antennae at them, then raised one armoured claw as if to snip them out of the sky.'