Dexterous Hand Series
The World’s Most Dexterous Humanoid Robot Hand Helping the Advances in Robotic Research.
uses and benefits
A trusted favourite among universities and companies.
It is used as a research and development tool (fully ROS integrated) and as a testing hardware for AI and Machine Learning.
Our robot hands are also a key component in our Shadow Teleoperation System - the world’s most advanced teleoperation technology.
If you see the Dexterous Hand fitting in with your work or if you would like to request a demo, get in touch.
ANTHROPOMORPHIC CHARACTERISTICS: The presence of nails and flesh provides the robot with high-friction and deformable materials for better grasping and manipulation.
The ONLY robot hand on the market to have 24 movements and 20 degrees of freedom (DOF) for increased flexibility in grasping and manipulating a range of objects.
The positioning of the fingers and the knuckles give comparable fingertip locations to the human hand.
All hands come with standard touch sensing at the fingertips. A single region sensor is used with a range of 0.1N to 25N. You can upgrade to have sensors that also measure temperature and vibration.
Includes the flex of the palm for the little finger and finger nails for the closest kinematics to the human hand, making it familiar to deploy and intuitive to handle.
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.
We also have load gauges close to the actuator that give you information about the tendon tension.
We have Maxon motor actuators in the forearm for high quality performance.
Flagship product
Dexterous Hand
Our most advanced 5-fingered Dexterous Hand is used by researchers all over the globe.
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
Flagship product
Shadow Dexterous Hand
Our Shadow Dexterous Hand is the most advanced 5-fingered robotic hand available, and it's being used by researchers all over the world. It offers unprecedented accuracy and dexterity, allowing researchers to manipulate tools and objects with greater precision and control than ever before. With this dexterous hand, researchers can explore new avenues of robotics and artificial intelligence, as well as refine existing technologies.
Other hands in the series
Dexterous Series
The Dexterous Hand is also available in Lite, Extra Lite and Super Lite models. Each model is smaller, lighter and more cost-effective than the next. Removing the fingers we found makes the system lighter while still keeping our unique finger design, allowing you, the researcher, to still complete nimble tasks.
Get More From Your Shadow Dexterous Hand
Produced by SynTouch, the BioTac is a revolutionary tactile sensor capable of detecting the full range of sensory information that human fingers can identify, including forces, micro-vibrations, and temperature.
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.
Control the Hand remotely as part of our Teleoperation System
The Hand is a key component in our Shadow Teleoperation System. The Hand can be controlled remotely to precisely mimic your movements and complete complex tasks over long distances – even cross-continent!
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 Tip Pressure Sensors | 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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Price List
Please get in touch via the contact form at the bottom of this page so that we can go through this with you. We may be able to offer a discount if you’re eligible for our Academic Partnership Programme.
CASE STUDIES
OpenAI
OpenAI used the Shadow Hand to study ways of learning dexterity using the complex task of solving a Rubik’s cube single-handedly.
They trained their system entirely in simulation via reinforcement learning and the Shadow Dexterous Hand demonstrated the learnings in the real world.
CASE STUDIES
Google Brain
Google Brain used the Shadow Hand to learn how to manipulate multiple objects using just a few hours of real-world data.
The team used a novel robot task planning technique involving deep dynamics models (DDM). You can read all about the impressive results in this article.
CASE STUDIES
Bielefeld University
Bielefeld University used a pair of Shadow Dexterous Hands in various Grasping and Manipulation tasks, from paper folding strategies to object grasping, using data from a vision system.
“With its unique, human-like design, the Shadow Hands serve as the perfect testbed to design, evaluate, and improve computational models of human manual intelligence.” – Prof. Dr Helge Ritter
Bielefeld University used a pair of Shadow Dexterous Hands in various Grasping and Manipulation tasks, from paper folding strategies to object grasping, using data from a vision system.
“With its unique, human-like design, the Shadow Hands serve as the perfect testbed to design, evaluate, and improve computational models of human manual intelligence.” – Prof. Dr Helge Ritter
Are you a researcher?
Discover how our robot hands are being used for research by academic institutes!
Contact us
A quick and easy way to contact us is through our online form