Xiaomi shows 21-DoF robot hand built from 1,827 tasks in its own car plant

Xiaomi disclosed research results on an industrial bionic dexterous hand on Oct 27 through its official Xiaomi Technology account, as reported by IT Home and 36Kr. The robot team started from the work of its own car factory: of 2,579 standard operating procedures (SOPs) in 16 typical work sections at the Xiaomi Auto smart-manufacturing pilot centre, it captured and analysed 1,827, which Xiaomi says cover more than 70.8% of the manual steps in those sections. The motion-capture data was cleaned, sliced and retargeted, and the hand was tested in simulation on digital models of real factory tools and parts.

The resulting hand has 21 degrees of freedom driven by 26 motors in a hybrid scheme with tendon tension control for grip-force accuracy, reliability and easier maintenance, plus a redesigned cooling system. About 1,500 tactile points cover the whole palm, with 1 mm spatial resolution at the fingertips, finger pads and finger roots and 2 mm in the palm; the tactile skin is replaceable and follows Xiaomi's earlier tactile-glove design so the same layout can record human hand data. Xiaomi gave no launch date, price or production plan, and the results described are from simulation and the data study.

MEKAWIRE context: Xiaomi was one of the drafters of all six of China's first humanoid robot national standards (our Oct 19 story). At 21 DoF the hand sits in the same class as the high-end hands covered in our robot touch explainer, and Xiaomi is one of the few hand developers that can draw its requirement list from a car plant it runs itself.