Boston Dynamics unveils 13-DOF four finger hand for Atlas
Boston Dynamics has unveiled a four finger hand for its Atlas humanoid, giving the robot 13 degrees of freedom and tactile sensing for tool use and fine object manipulation. According to The Korea Herald, the hardware was developed for continuous, complex industrial tasks rather than as a direct copy of a human hand.
The Atlas robot hand has four degrees of freedom in its thumb and three in each remaining finger. Pressure based tactile sensors across the fingertips and palm detect changes in contact force, allowing Atlas to adjust finger position and grip strength for different shapes, materials and contact conditions.
Drilling, fastening and in hand manipulation
In a video released by Boston Dynamics, Atlas inserted a drill bit into a power drill, pressed the trigger and drilled a hole in wood. The robot also tightened a small nut by rotating it between its fingers, spun a thin drumstick and manipulated two golf balls within one hand.
The sequence demonstrates a useful spread of manipulation skills, including tool preparation, trigger operation, fingertip rotation and control of multiple loose objects. It does not establish how reliably the hand can repeat those actions during long factory cycles, where wear, contamination and inconsistent object placement become harder problems.
Four fingers as an industrial tradeoff
Boston Dynamics said it evaluated design complexity, power consumption, cost, durability and maintenance when selecting the four finger arrangement. The roughly human sized hand uses modular components and a simplified structure, choices intended to make servicing more practical.
“We tested various designs, including the number of thumbs and whether a pinky was necessary, through experiments, simulations and 3D-printed mockups.”Alberto Rodriguez, head of Atlas behavior manipulation technology at Boston Dynamics
The company also used a Sim-to-Real process, training manipulation behaviors in virtual environments before applying them to physical hardware. Its simulations modeled hardware properties and friction while varying motor torque, object geometry and external disturbances during reinforcement learning.
Boston Dynamics recently opened its Robotics Metaplant Application Center, which replicates Hyundai Motor Group manufacturing conditions. The center is intended to collect Atlas manufacturing data and support a cycle of training, field application, feedback and retraining. Repeated testing there should provide a clearer measure of whether the new hand can maintain its demonstrated precision under factory conditions.
Source: The Korea Herald
