Dexterous Hand Series
The World’s Most Dexterous Humanoid Robot Hand.
Advancing robotic research and application in industry
The Shadow Dexterous Hand is the most advanced 5-fingered robotic hand in the world.
Offering unprecedented accuracy, The Hand can manipulate tools and objects with greater precision than ever before. Our technology opens up new avenues for research in robotics and artificial intelligence, and enables the refinement of existing technologies.
Palm flex
The extra DOF here allows the little finger to oppose the thumb and gives the palm more human-like behaviour.
Wrist
With 2 extra DOF at the wrist, it provides flexibility, optimises accurate positioning of the hand, and helps avoid singularities when mounted on a robot arm.
With 2 extra DOF at the wrist, it provides flexibility, optimises accurate positioning of the hand, and helps avoid singularities when mounted on a robot arm.
Abduct/Adduct
Each finger has an independent side-to-side motion for impressive in-hand manipulation and other movements with advanced dexterity
Tendon Driven
Provides postural stability, shock mitigation, and bending to facilitate dexterous motion.
Provides postural stability, shock mitigation, and bending to facilitate dexterous motion.
Multiple tactile sensing options
A range of different finger tactile tips are available depending on your dexterity needs
A range of different finger tactile tips are available depending on your dexterity needs
uses and benefits
Over 20 years' research and development make The Dexterous Hand a trusted component for research and industry.
Shadow Tactile Fingertip (STF) fitted as standard in some fingertips with the option to upgrade to more.
Fully ROS integrated, for use as a research and development tool and as testing hardware for AI and Machine Learning.
Discover Dexterous lite
The Lite series gives you more flexibility to meet your project needs. Choose from the Lite, Extra Lite and Super Lite versions of our robot hands.
Compact and lightweight - removing a finger from each successive model decreases their weight, making the Lite series particularly well suited for mobile manipulation projects or reducing the load on robot arms
Energy-efficient - Dropping from the five fingered hand to the four fingered Lite delivers 35% power saving, helpful for battery powered systems.
Affordable - each model offers savings, making it possible to achieve precision manipulation on a budget
| Overview | Shadow Dexterous Hand | Shadow Dexterous Hand Lite | Shadow Dexterous Hand Extra Lite | Shadow Dexterous Hand Super Lite |
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| Degrees of Freedom (DOF) | 20 actuated DOF and a further 4 under-actuated movements for a total of 24 joints | 13 DOF across 16 joints | 10 DOF across 12 joints | 7 DOF across 8 joints |
| Overall Weight | 4.3 Kg | 2.4 Kg | 2.1 Kg | 1.8 Kg |
| No. of Fingers | 4 + 1 (thumb) | 3 + 1 (thumb) | 2 + 1 (thumb) | 1 + 1 (thumb) |
| No. of Actuators | 20 DC motors | 13 DC motors | 10 DC motors | 7 DC motors |
| No. of Finger Joints | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| No. of Thumb Joints | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| No. of Wrist Joints | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| No. of STFs fitted as standard | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Max No. of STFs | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| No. Inertial Measurement Units (IMU) | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| No. of Tendon Load Sensors | 40 | 26 | 20 | 14 |
| Control loop rate through host | 1kHz (EtherCat protocol) | 1kHz (EtherCat protocol) | 1kHz (EtherCat protocol) | 1kHz (EtherCat protocol) |
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| Easily Integrated on Robot Arms | |
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| Upgradable With Other Components | |
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Dexterous Hand Options
System options
Shadow Glove
Intuitive control in the palm of your Hand.
The Shadow Glove is fully optimised to work with our Dexterous Hands, accurately mimicking your movements to provide unparalleled precision with minimal training.
Running a physical robot carries costs and risks – so why not make life easier by getting things working in simulation first?
Learn all about how to simulate our Dexterous Hand and our other products in our blogpost.
Add an Arm
Our Hands are more mobile when attached to an arm for extendable reach. We can provide each Hand with a safe and flexible 6 Degrees of Freedom (DOF) industrial robotic arm from Universal Robots.