The phrase ‘I only have two hands’ is no longer an excuse with a new human-machine hybrid.

Researchers have unveiled a wrist-worn joint device that transforms into extra fingers, allowing the wearer to carryout ‘tri-manual tasks’.

Strong enough to lift a bucket, this gripper-like robot consists of 11 motors linked together using LEGO parts - each one designed with 180 degrees of motion range.

The team used electromyography (EGM) signals from a MYO armband sensor worn around the arm, which is a gesture control wearable that tracks motion and muscle. It can work as a second hand to help the wearer perform multiple tasks at once, such as opening and unlocking a door simultaneously

This high-tech ‘hand’ was developed by the researchers at MIT who based the designs on a few different factors such as not interfering with the user’s own human abilities and it should be able to disengage from the user’s context without enforcing continuous use of it.

Cables connect to an armband sensor and also to a computer-based controller.

‘The physical design of our joints device is created to maximize the rendering capability for various form factors, while maintaining a quasi-anthropomorphic setup so that a range of physical tasks can be performed, reads the recently published study.

‘Therefore, our final design consists of two finger-shaped segments, each with 4 pitch servos, and one yaw servo, mounted on a bigger base servo that adjusts the angular position of the entire device.’

Servo, or servomechanism, is a device that uses error-sensing negative feeds back to improve the performance of a mechanism.

The base servo can be attached to different areas of the arm: on the forearm, wrist, or parallel or perpendicular to the arm.

And each position performs different set of functions.

The team used electromyography (EGM) signals from a MYO armband sensor worn around the arm, which is a gesture control wearable that tracks motion and muscle.

‘The wearable design of our device makes it easy to switch between use and non-use,’ said the researchers.