--- title: A Robust Robot Hand Engineered for Mass Production description: Boston Dynamics unveiled a redesigned four-fingered hand for its Atlas humanoid robot, prioritizing manufacturability, reliability, and cost over cosmetic... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/a-robust-robot-hand-engineered-for-mass-production-gwulnpxek twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: A Robust Robot Hand Engineered for Mass Production | daily.dev og:description: Boston Dynamics unveiled a redesigned four-fingered hand for its Atlas humanoid robot, prioritizing manufacturability, reliability, and cost over cosmetic... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/a-robust-robot-hand-engineered-for-mass-production-gwulnpxek og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/gWULnPXek.png og:image:alt: A Robust Robot Hand Engineered for Mass Production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # A Robust Robot Hand Engineered for Mass Production **[IEEE Spectrum](https://daily.dev/sources/ieeespectrum)** · 5 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Boston Dynamics unveiled a redesigned four-fingered hand for its Atlas humanoid robot, prioritizing manufacturability, reliability, and cost over cosmetic human likeness. The new hand nearly doubles degrees of freedom from 7 to 13, drops the pinky, adds finger splay for gripping tool triggers like drills, and uses direct-drive actuators embedded in joints with easily replaceable actuator packs instead of fragile tendons. Director of Robot Behavior Alberto Rodriguez says the goal is figuring out how to manufacture 100,000 of these hands a year, a tradeoff most anthropomorphic hand designs from competitors have not made. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How many degrees of freedom does the new Boston Dynamics Atlas robot hand have compared to the previous version? The new Atlas hand has 13 degrees of freedom, nearly double the 7 degrees of freedom in the previous three-finger generation. It also adds a fourth finger, drops the pinky, and introduces finger splay so one finger can move against another and grip tool triggers like drills and welding torches. _Developers tracking humanoid robotics hardware shifts can follow hand design updates like this on daily.dev._ ### Why did Boston Dynamics design the new Atlas hand to look less humanlike than competitors' robot hands? Boston Dynamics prioritized reliability, manufacturability, and cost over cosmetic human resemblance, arguing that cramming full hand function into a human-shaped form factor makes hands fragile or expensive. The new design uses fewer, larger, more powerful direct-drive actuators embedded in joints, avoiding delicate tendons and cables that can stretch or break. _Anyone weighing robot hardware tradeoffs can keep up with these engineering debates on daily.dev._ ### What manufacturing scale is Boston Dynamics targeting for its new Atlas robot hand? Boston Dynamics is working toward producing 100,000 of its new Atlas robot hands per year, according to Director of Robot Behavior Alberto Rodriguez, who says the team is now refining design details needed to hit that manufacturing volume reliably and at low repair cost. _Engineers following humanoid robot scaling plans can track hardware milestones like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Reversible, detachable robotic hand redefines dexterity](https://daily.dev/posts/reversible-detachable-robotic-hand-redefines-dexterity-l0w93fdfc) · Robohub · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [MIT’s ultrasound wristband tracks every finger movement and lets you control a robot hand in real time](https://daily.dev/posts/mit-s-ultrasound-wristband-tracks-every-finger-movement-and-lets-you-control-a-robot-hand-in-real-ti-hsbdqbuww) · The Next Web · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#robotics](https://daily.dev/tags/robotics), [#reinforcement-learning](https://daily.dev/tags/reinforcement-learning) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/a-robust-robot-hand-engineered-for-mass-production-gwulnpxek) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"A Robust Robot Hand Engineered for Mass Production","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-robust-robot-hand-engineered-for-mass-production-gwulnpxek","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-robust-robot-hand-engineered-for-mass-production-gwulnpxek"},"datePublished":"2026-10-01T14:42:15.529Z","dateModified":"2026-10-02T04:52:26.808Z","description":"Boston Dynamics unveiled a redesigned four-fingered hand for its Atlas humanoid robot, prioritizing manufacturability, reliability, and cost over cosmetic...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/df59a77196e8ae10cbf7d7a7cbf1accf?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/df59a77196e8ae10cbf7d7a7cbf1accf?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"IEEE Spectrum","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"IEEE Spectrum","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/b123f5e8420e492ab36f6adb30c1793a","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/ieeespectrum"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-robust-robot-hand-engineered-for-mass-production-gwulnpxek","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"robotics,reinforcement-learning","timeRequired":"PT5M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"IEEE Spectrum","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/ieeespectrum"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"A Robust Robot Hand Engineered for Mass Production"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/a-robust-robot-hand-engineered-for-mass-production-gwulnpxek#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How many degrees of freedom does the new Boston Dynamics Atlas robot hand have compared to the previous version?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The new Atlas hand has 13 degrees of freedom, nearly double the 7 degrees of freedom in the previous three-finger generation. It also adds a fourth finger, drops the pinky, and introduces finger splay so one finger can move against another and grip tool triggers like drills and welding torches. Developers tracking humanoid robotics hardware shifts can follow hand design updates like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why did Boston Dynamics design the new Atlas hand to look less humanlike than competitors' robot hands?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Boston Dynamics prioritized reliability, manufacturability, and cost over cosmetic human resemblance, arguing that cramming full hand function into a human-shaped form factor makes hands fragile or expensive. The new design uses fewer, larger, more powerful direct-drive actuators embedded in joints, avoiding delicate tendons and cables that can stretch or break. Anyone weighing robot hardware tradeoffs can keep up with these engineering debates on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"What manufacturing scale is Boston Dynamics targeting for its new Atlas robot hand?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Boston Dynamics is working toward producing 100,000 of its new Atlas robot hands per year, according to Director of Robot Behavior Alberto Rodriguez, who says the team is now refining design details needed to hit that manufacturing volume reliably and at low repair cost. Engineers following humanoid robot scaling plans can track hardware milestones like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```