ペタリハンド

While creating robotic grippers to pick up objects that are all the same shape and consistency is relatively easy, difficulties arise when trying to create one versatile enough to handle a wider variety of objects. The flexibility of the human hand has led many robotics researchers to borrow the familiar four finger and opposable thumb template that has served us so well, but getting the robotic hand to exert enough force to grip a variety of objects without breaking the more fragile ones is still a difficult task. For this reason a team of researchers has bypassed the traditional human hand and fingers design to create a versatile gripper using everyday coffee grounds and a latex party balloon.

アメリカコーネル大・シカゴ大・iRobot社の研究者らが、
コーヒー滓と風船で、何でもつかめるロボットハンドを開発したというお話。
とりあえず「ペタリハンド」は「universal gripper」と訳せばいいことは判った（おい）。
さておきこの発明は、団扇が扇風機になったぐらい画期的な発明なんでしょうな。