DexLink Hand: A Compact, Affordable, 16-DOF Linkage-Driven Hand with Human-Like Dexterity

2026-06-15

AI Summary

This work addresses the longstanding challenge of balancing dexterity, compactness, and low cost in robotic hands by proposing a humanoid hand design based on a hybrid planar–spatial linkage mechanism. Integrated within the volume of a human palm, the prototype incorporates 16 actuators, 20 joints, and all sensing and transmission components, achieving a total mass of 320 grams and a material cost under $400. The linkage mechanism decouples multi-directional motions, enables biomimetic joint coordination, and provides high passive load-bearing capacity, with the thumb replicating human-like opposition and reconfiguration capabilities. The hand attains the highest Kapandji score reported to date and fully reproduces all 33 Feix grasp types, demonstrating stable and dexterous manipulation across a wide range of everyday objects.

Abstract

Dexterous robotic hands face a longstanding trade-off among dexterity, compactness, and affordability. Particularly, high-degree-of-freedom designs typically demand complex actuation and transmission, hindering integration into human-scale forms. To address these challenges, this work presents a compact, low-cost linkage-driven anthropomorphic hand that achieves high dexterity, structural integration, and human-hand-like functionality. The hand integrates 20 joints driven by 16 independent actuators, with all actuation, sensing, and transmission components compactly embedded within a human-hand-sized structure. The resulting prototype weighs only 320g at a total cost below USD 400. To meet these objectives, a hybrid mechanical architecture combining planar and spatial linkage mechanisms is proposed, enabling decoupled multidirectional motion, biomimetic joint synergies, and high passive load-bearing capability. The thumb further incorporates biomimetic features supporting human-like reconfiguration and opposition movements. Through the coordinated integration of these mechanisms and structural layout, the prototype achieves a highly integrated design with anthropomorphic dexterity. Experimental evaluations demonstrate that the hand achieves the maximum Kapandji score, reproduces all 33 Feix grasp types, and performs stable grasping and dexterous manipulation across a wide variety of daily objects and tools. These results validate the proposed hand as an affordable, compact, and mechanically efficient platform for dexterous manipulation, teleoperation, and robot learning in human-centered environments.

Problem

• dexterous robotic hands
• dexterity
• compactness
• affordability
• human-scale integration

Innovation

• linkage-driven
• anthropomorphic dexterity
• compact robotic hand
• hybrid mechanical architecture
• biomimetic joint synergies