Event
Dexterous hand industry shifts from degrees-of-freedom race to pragmatism
1 reports · 1 sources
Boston Dynamics unveiled a four-fingered dexterous hand for Atlas with 13 degrees of freedom in total, nearly double the previous generation's 7. In the same period, Unitree's Dex5-S, released in September, also has only 22 degrees of freedom; the industry is shifting from a race on degrees-of-freedom specifications toward pragmatism. Xinuo Future says that beyond 25 degrees of freedom the marginal effect diminishes, and existing VLA models can output only about 10 motion control vectors at the same timestamp, so many precise movements still need to be achieved via teleoperation. In the short term, low-degrees-of-freedom solutions such as three-fingered and four-fingered hands remain mainstream, and 7-15 degrees-of-freedom products are seen as the option best suited to the market at the current stage.
Report timeline
- Dexterous hands move past the DOF race: Boston Dynamics' new Atlas hand has four fingers and 13 degrees of freedom, with the VLA "brain" and cost emerging as bottlenecks
Boston Dynamics has introduced a four-fingered dexterous hand for Atlas with 13 degrees of freedom in total, nearly double the previous generation's 7; Unitree's Dex5-S, released in September, also has only 22 degrees of freedom, as the industry shifts from a specs race toward pragmatism. Xinor Future says marginal returns diminish beyond 25 degrees of freedom, and existing VLA models can output only about 10 motion control vectors at the same timestamp, so many precise movements still require teleoperation. In the near term, low-DOF options such as three- and four-fingered hands remain mainstream, and products with 7-15 degrees of freedom are seen as the best market fit at this stage.
OFweek Robotics ·