Bionic hand

A picture taken on July 17, 2012 shows a man wearing a Body Extender robot at the Perceptual Robotics Laboratory of the Italian University St. Anna School in Pisa. A bionic hand controlled by the brain or an exoskeleton that allows a rescue worker to lift alone a wall crushing the victim of an earthquake: these innovations are not science fiction but indeed exist in Pisa, Tuscany. The Graduate School Sant'Anna of Pisa (SSSA), which includes six research institutes, has already developed two prototypes but also a robot capable of overcoming obstacles, another that recycles garbage or one that has the form of an octopus. Photo: AFP