The humanoid hand race is on!
While hands are the real key to humanoid robot productivity, Tesla Optimus gen3 is still under wraps, likely because of non workable hands and several other humanoid vendors are struggling to deliver humanoids with dexterous and reliable hands. This vacuum has given birth to a handful (pun intended) of startups focusing only on the hands. The result is amazing.
Below are two excellent examples of new and impressive designs from Chinese startups. True engineering masterpieces that seem to be addressing a lot of the shortcomings of current hands: Dexterity, Sensitivity and Ruggedness.
Pan motor has released the WUJI hand. A highly rugged and powerful hand with in palm actuation. Wuji Tech seems to have cracked the code by delivering both. They’ve created a hand that not only moves with incredible fluidity in their video but interestingly stating that is also rated for over 300,000 cycles, with tests pushing it to a million. At 20 degrees of freedom and weighing less than 600 grams it seems like an incredible piece of engineering. We are looking forward to test it in our lab here at Humanoid guide. See video below.
Dexcel robotics has released the Apex hand. A really fascinating design, with in palm actuation and and apparent rugged construction. Dexcel says that it is a high-performance, all-around platform that combines dexterity, impact-resilience, exceptional speed, strength, precision, and perception. Further stating that they have pushed the boundaries of innovation, from mechanical design to material science (think super soft e-skin!). Another welcome test object in our lab here at Humanoid guide. See video below.
Both of these hands appear to come from projects brought to the market in a relatively short timespan, begging the question: If small teams in startups can bring forward impressive robotic hands like this in such a short time, what are the well funded big humanoid companies like Tesla and others struggling with?
There are currently two technical camps within the humanoid hand race:
- In-palm actuated hands (Figure, several Chinese vendors like Dexcel and Pan Motor)
- Tendon driven hands with actuators in the forearm (Tesla )
Among arguments for tendon driven hands have been strength and weight distribution (motors closer to body). Now, with the release of these two new hands, this argument seem to have shifted towards less validity. We seem to have proof (if robot videos can be trusted 🙂 ) that in-palm actuation can bring strength, compactness and light weight. The result could be simple interfaces for humanoids to connect to off the shelf hands, more like the USB port have been between web cams and keyboards and computers.
Apex hand by Dexcel robotics
Wuji hand by Pan Motor
