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"It was [H.G. Wells'] adolescent fiction, his imaginative stories, that live forever - and yet are not acknowledged in literature classes as being great literature. So to hell with the academics!"
- Greg Bear

Robotic Hand  
  A dexterous manipulator for robots.  

When designing Flexible Frank, the all-purpose robot, great attention was paid to the manipulators provided to the robot.

But to do the multitude of things I wanted him to do, he had to have hands, eyes, ears, and a brain... a good enough brain.

Hands I could order from the atomics-engineering equipment companies who supplied Hired Girl's hands, only this time I would want the best, with wide-range servos and with the delicate feedback required for microanalysis manipulations and for weighing radioactive isotopes...

The ears I could buy from any of a dozen radio-TV houses - though I might have to do some circuit designing to have his hands controlled simultaneously by sight, sound, and touch feedback the way the human hand is controlled.

Technovelgy from The Door Into Summer, by Robert Heinlein.
Published by Fantasy & Science Fiction in 1956
Additional resources -

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Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Door Into Summer
  More Ideas and Technology by Robert Heinlein
  Tech news articles related to The Door Into Summer
  Tech news articles related to works by Robert Heinlein

Robotic Hand-related news articles:
  - Electrolocation Robotic Hand Has PreTouch
  - Obrero Robot Has The Soft Touch
  - DLR Robotic Hand-Arm Is Super-Strong, Super-Tough
  - Most Advanced Robotic Hand?

Articles related to Robotics
PaXini Supersensitive Robot Fingers
Artificial Skin For Robots Is Coming Right Along
Robot Guard Dog On Duty
Wearable Artificial Fabric Muscles

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