Fully Direct-Drive Dexterous Hand

A dexterous hand where a motor mounted right at each active joint drives it directly, with no tendons or linkages.

A fully direct-drive dexterous hand gives every actuated degree of freedom its own miniature motor, placed right next to that joint, keeping the transmission path from motor to joint as short as possible — unlike tendon drive, which keeps the motor in the forearm and pulls a cable, or a linkage design, where one motor drives several joints at once. The benefits are fast response, low friction and backlash, backdrivability (an external force can push the joint back), the ability to estimate force from motor current, and support for a high number of degrees of freedom. The challenge is that the space inside a finger is extremely tight, yet has to fit a motor, encoder, and drive electronics, which makes the whole hand heavier, concentrates heat generation, and demands a lot from micro-motor manufacturing. Several Chinese companies have introduced products like this since 2025.

ExampleDexterous-hand maker Wujitech's Wuji Hand (20 DOF) and Sharpa Wave (22 DOF) are both reported to use a direct-drive design.

Also called

Direct-Drive Dexterous Hand

Related

Dexterous Hand · Direct Drive · Tendon-Driven Actuation · Linkage Transmission · Hybrid-Drive Dexterous Hand · Backdrivability

Sources

直驱传动，扛起最强灵巧手的大旗 - 腾讯新闻 (Chinese)

As of

2025-12