At the Tsukuba Mechanical engineering Lab (M.E.L.), Japan, a robotic hand with tactile sensors gently grips an orange. The robotic hand is equipped with tactile sensors in the finger tips to transmit a signal back to the operator. Designed by Hitoshi Maekawa Ph.D. a researcher in the cybernetics division of the Department of Robotics of Tuskuba MEL. Over the last 8 years, Maekawa has developed a robotic hand with tactile sensors that can hold items in its fingertips and compensate for slippage. His research is into dynamic grasping force control for a multi-fingered hand. (Paper on project was presented at the IEEE International Conference On Robotics and Automation, 1996. Work is ongoing).