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Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid has a new four-finger hand with 13 degrees of freedom (DOF), up from seven in its previous hand. The company says the redesign is meant to help Atlas manipulate objects after grasping them—including using tools—not simply hold a wider variety of objects.
What changed in Atlas’s new hand?
The new hand has four fingers: an opposable thumb with four DOF and three other fingers with three DOF each. Boston Dynamics says its joints are directly actuated, with actuators enclosed so fragile cables do not cross the joints. Pressure-sensitive tactile sensors cover the fingertips and palm. Boston Dynamics’ account of the design describes these features and its intended uses.
| Design | Finger count | Degrees of freedom | Stated purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Previous Atlas hand | Three | 7 | Grasp a wide variety of objects |
| New Atlas hand | Four | 13 | Manipulate objects after grasping them |
The comparison reflects Boston Dynamics’ description; the sources do not provide controlled performance tests against other robot hands.
What can the hand do?
Boston Dynamics says the extra movement is intended to support tasks that require adjustment and control after an object is in the hand. Listed design targets include:
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- Moving the thumb along or across the other fingers.
- Pinching between the thumb and any of the other fingers, as well as forming a three-point, or tripodal, grasp.
- Recovering when an object starts to slip and reorienting it within the hand.
- Holding a tool while pressing its trigger.
In launch-video demonstrations reported by Aju Press on October 2, 2026, Atlas loaded a bit into a power drill, bored into wood, tightened a small nut with its fingertips and swung a frying pan. These are examples shown in a video, not evidence of unsupervised performance across factory conditions.
Why did Boston Dynamics choose four fingers instead of five?
Boston Dynamics describes hand design as a balance among dexterity, strength, ruggedness, cost, repairability, sensing and manufacturability. It says a fifth finger’s added capability did not justify three more DOF and the extra actuators, size, power use, complexity and potential failure points. That is the company’s reasoning for Atlas, not a universal conclusion about the best design for every robot.
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The company recounts a team experiment in which one member taped his pinky to the adjacent finger for a day at CTO Zack Jackowski’s request. Its conclusion: “At the end of the experiment we had agreement: no pinky.”
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Boston Dynamics says dexterous manipulation calls for rapid feedback and force regulation. It presents the hand’s drive and transmission characteristics as a way to support high-fidelity simulation and transfer skills from simulation to the physical robot. That is the company’s design rationale; the sources do not include an independent benchmark of simulation accuracy or a performance comparison with competing hands.
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What the hand’s specifications do—and do not—tell you about Atlas
The hand’s 13 DOF describe its joints, not the entire humanoid. Hyundai Motor Group’s January 6, 2026 robotics strategy announcement gives Atlas as a whole 56 DOF and a lift capacity of up to 110 lb (50 kg). Those platform-level figures should not be attributed to the hand.
Hyundai describes Atlas as an industrial platform in development, with material sequencing, assembly and machine tending among its target applications. The company says it plans to introduce Atlas to processes with validated safety and quality benefits beginning in 2028, then extend it to component assembly by 2030 and expand further as performance is validated. These are future plans, not completed deployments.
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Aju Press also reported a planned rollout of 25,000 robots across Hyundai and Kia plants over the following years. That figure is a reported corporate plan, not an achieved order or deployed fleet, and it is not independently confirmed by Hyundai’s strategy announcement cited above.
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Is the Atlas hand available to buy?
The available sources describe a proprietary hand on an industrial humanoid platform in development; they do not establish consumer availability for Atlas or its hand. The demonstrations and rollout timelines point to industrial development and intended uses, not a product for public purchase.
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