Atlas hand lead says 13 identical sealed actuators and in-house design are about speed, not dexterity records
Alberto Rodriguez, director of robot behavior for Atlas at Boston Dynamics, told The Robot Report in an interview published Oct 9 that the company's new four-finger, 13-degree-of-freedom hand is built from 13 identical, fully encapsulated actuators with no cables crossing the joints, a choice meant to make it reliable and quick to iterate. He said earlier Atlas hands could already lift objects over 100 lb, so the team cut some strength to improve actuation transparency, and that hands are too central to humanoids to buy off the shelf. Test tasks include handheld power tools, cable handling and fishing for screws. MEKAWIRE covered the hand's unveiling on Oct 1, when Boston Dynamics said it dropped the pinky to make the hand cheaper to build and repair.
