Published on 10/ 9/2007
How does one crush a car at a junkyard? The answer is pretty simple - the car-crushing robot hand. Unfortunately, this amazing piece of engineering might soon be sold for scrap metal, sharing the same fate as those cars that it once crushed with impunity. The robotic hand is huge - measuring 25 feet long and weighing 5,000 pounds. It was built in just 12 days out of scrap and recycled parts by an international team comprised of Doyle Shuge, Justin Gray, Conrad Karlson and Jens Schendel. The fingers use segments of old I beams, while the forearm is the modified truss of an ancient digging machine. The whole hydraulic system was magically assembled from junkyard salvage, while plumbing and cables were ripped from walls of an old shipbuilding warehouse.