SUMMARY1X unveiled new NEO robot hands with 25 degrees of freedom, including 22 actuated joints in the fingers and palm and three at the wrist. The hands use tendon-driven, low-gear-ratio motors mounted in the forearm, giving them high force with low inertia, while built-in force sensing, tactile skin, and backdrivability support dexterous and safer manipulation. The design is IP68 waterproof, food-safe, and already in production at scale, with hundreds built and capacity for 10,000 hands this year.
- 25 degrees of freedom: 22 fully actuated in the fingers and palm, plus 3 at the wrist.
- The DoF are distributed anatomically rather than evenly, deliberately biased toward a thumb that genuinely opposes the fingers.
- In-house tendon-driven, quasi-direct-drive running low gear ratios of ~5:1 to 15:1 vs the typical 100:1–200:1.
- Motors live in the forearm and pull tendons through the wrist. This keeps the hand light and its inertia low while producing high forces.
Sensing
- All 25 DoF are natively force-controlled and fully backdrivable. Every joint doubles as a force sensor.
- Very important, closed-loop proprioception: it always knows its own pose and effort without looking.
- Tactile skin across the fingertips and surfaces measuring contact and shear. This helps with adaptive gripping in real time.
Safety and durability
- IP68 waterproof and food-safe, so it can wash its own hands.
- Compliant by construction: the low gear ratios, tendon drive, and low distal inertia let external impacts safely backdrive the fingers. It yields when hit by a hammer or caught in a drawer.
- Full finger assemblies validated to millions of cycles.
Manufacturing
- Deep vertical integration: in-house motors, custom electronics, and tendon systems.
- Hundreds built already, with capacity to produce 10,000 hands this year.
from @TheHumanoidHub