Insider Brief
- 1X introduced a new tendon-driven robotic hand for its Neo humanoid platform, designed to improve the robot’s dexterity, touch sensing and ability to handle everyday objects.
- The hand has 25 degrees of freedom, including 22 fully actuated degrees of freedom in the fingers and palm and three at the wrist, and will ship on every Neo robot.
- It features a tendon-drive system, force-controlled and backdrivable fingers, tactile sensing, IP68 waterproofing and food-safe materials, with 1X having capacity to produce 10,000 hands this year.
1X has introduced a new tendon-driven robotic hand for its Neo humanoid platform, one designed to improve the robot’s dexterity, touch sensing and ability to handle everyday objects.
According to 1X, the hand, which has 25 degrees of freedom, is a core part of the humanoid system since a robot’s ability to act in the world depends heavily on what it can do with what is at the end of its arms.
“Our goal was never a hand that just looks impressive on paper,” founder and CEO Bernt Børnich noted in the announcement. “These hands are the culmination of intensive engineering focused on making humanoids truly useful. We built them to match or surpass human capability across every dimension that matters. With these hands, Neo crosses a critical threshold. The robot can now do the things humans do with their hands, every day. This is what the industry has been waiting for.”
The new hand will ship on every Neo robot and is built around 1X’s tendon-drive system, with motors located in the forearm and tendons routed through the wrist. The company said the design allows the hand to remain lightweight while producing enough force for tool use, lifting, carrying, opening doors, pushing carts and handling small objects.
1X said the hand is force-controlled and backdrivable, meaning the fingers can yield when pushed and report the force being applied. That lets the hand act not only as an actuator, but also as a sensing system for touch and contact.
The hand also includes tactile sensing across the fingertips and surfaces. The company pointed out that the sensors measure normal force, contact location and shear, allowing the robot to detect slipping and adjust its grip in real time.
Key Specs
Degrees of freedom: 25 total, including 22 fully actuated degrees of freedom in the fingers and palm and three at the wrist.
Drive system: Quasi-direct-drive tendons using the 1X Tendon Drive, with low gear ratios of about 5:1 to 15:1.
Force and torque: Peak torque of 3.5 newton-meters at the thumb CMC joint, 2.6 newton-meters at the finger MCP joints, distal flexion forces up to 45 newtons and wrist torque of 17.75 newton-meters.
Precision: Positioning accuracy of plus or minus 0.2 millimeters.
Sensing: Tactile sensing across the fingertips and hand surfaces for pressure, contact location and shear.
Durability: IP68 waterproofing, food-safe materials and testing across millions of interaction cycles.
A video posted by 1X shows it assembling Legos, picking up screws and coins, installing light bulbs, using a screwdriver, rotating objects in-hand, zipping a jacket and other tasks.
1X said the hand was designed as part of the full Neo system, integrating in-house motors, custom electronics, embedded sensing, proprietary tendons, compact transmissions and hand-specific firmware.
The company also said hundreds of the hands have already come off a scalable production line and all the hands are made in-house, including tendon materials, motors, soft polymers, skin and tactile sensing. 1X indicated it has capacity to produce 10,000 hands this year.
Image credit: 1X
