Because its 2014, because we wear ear pieces connected to our smartphones, because we can talk to our Xbox and make commands, because robotics are changing the way people work and play, what are some of the limitations we still see in tech? Well, I have surely heard of robots that can go get you a beer, to robots that can perform tasks your doctor would (both of these obviously being of equal importance). Did you catch my sarcasm? But, a new robot is capable of something typically thought of as uniquely human, finding and catching flying objects. This is because the act of catching involves split-second brain calculations, in addition to incredibly fast physical adjustments for a ball to not hit you in your own face.

Researchers from the Learning Algorithms and Systems Laboratory at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, created this new robotic arm. With the help of its four fingered and three-jointed hand, it can catch objects thrown at in within 5/100th of a second. That takes very fine-tuned adjustments to successfully make a catch. Researchers say the invention, which was published on May 12th in the journal IEEE Transactions on Robotics, supports the idea that “robotics will be able to either catch or dodge complex objects in full-motion”, and that “not only do we need machines able to react on the spot, but also to predict the moving object's dynamic and generate a movement in the opposite direction”.

For now, the fancy-armed robot remains unnamed, but is anticipated to help aid the Space Junk Program, an effort to decrease the amount of orbital debris that can move up to 5 miles a second (about 18,000 miles an hour). Orbital debris is pieces of spacecraft, potentially dangerous pollution per say, that hasn't fallen back down to the earth yet. This debris lands on earth about once a day, usually drowning itself in the Earth's most dominant surface, water, but the pieces that haven't made it are still in orbit. To help, the LASA scientists are giving the robot a deed to the earth by connecting it to the Clean-mE Project at the Swiss Space Center at EPFL. The goal of the arm would be to install it on a debris hunting satellite so it can catch flying pieces. For it to be truly successful, however, the team says “it'll need to develop and incorporate a number of parameters to allow it to react to unexpected events in record time”.

The arm works by having almost human blocking mechanisms, remaining motionless just until an object comes into view. This took efforts of a method called “programming by demonstration”, where the scientists took inspiration from human learning tricks for experimentation, and impersonation. The robot essentially had to figure out how to move itself into the appropriate blocking position to catch what was thrown at it. Just as an example, some of the test objects included in the experiment have been a ball, a flask, a mallet, and tennis racket. To fully appreciate the speed and accuracy of the robotic arm, the video below should inspire you.