Boston Dynamics gives Atlas a four-finger, 13-DoF hand with no pinky

Boston Dynamics unveiled a new hand for its electric Atlas humanoid on October 1, 2026: four fingers and 13 degrees of freedom (DoF), up from seven on the previous three-finger hand. The thumb has four DoF and each of the other three fingers has three. The company left out the little finger, saying a fifth finger would mean three more actuators, “with the corresponding extra cost, volume, and probability of something breaking.”

Why it matters: this is the hand Hyundai Motor Group’s robot maker is putting forward as Atlas heads into the group’s own plants. It is optimised for what a factory buyer pays for — tool use, durability and a design that can be built at volume — rather than anatomical completeness.

What did Boston Dynamics change in the Atlas hand?

The earlier hand, which Boston Dynamics detailed in October 2025, had three fingers driven by seven actuators and was designed to grasp a wide variety of objects. The new one is built around tools. The company lists pinch and tripod grasps, in-hand reorientation, recovery from a slipping grasp, and “triggered tool grasps, like drills, power torque drivers, grinders, nail guns, and welding torches” — holding a handle while pressing its trigger. In the demonstration video, as described by Seoul Economic Daily and Aju Press, Atlas loads a slender drill bit into a drill and tightens a small nut.

The pinky decision came from a test. Chief product and technology officer Zack Jackowski asked engineers to tape their pinky and ring finger together for a day and report what they could not do. Mechanical engineer Dylan Thrush told The Robot Report that the additional dexterity “is not worth the extra complexity.” The hand is about the size of a large human hand and, on average, a little stronger than a human one, according to the company.

Why build a hand for simulation and mass production?

Two constraints shaped the design. The first is learning. Boston Dynamics says rigid-drive actuation and a backdrivable transmission make it possible to simulate the hand with high dynamic fidelity, so behaviours can be trained with reinforcement learning in simulation and moved to hardware. It trained behaviours under randomised motor torque profiles and surface friction, and describes early sim-to-real results in dynamic tasks as promising. That is a company assessment; no success rates were published.

The second is manufacturing. All 13 joints use one actuator type, the hand is sealed, and no fragile cables cross the joints — the “simplicity necessary for mass manufacturing,” in the company’s words. Dense pressure sensors on the fingertips and palm pick up small contact signals. Boston Dynamics did not publish the hand’s weight, sensor count, cycle life or cost, or say when it will ship on production Atlas units.

How does a 13-DoF hand compare with other robot hands?

On count alone, it is modest. As of late September 2026, the most articulated hands on sale offered 20 to 22 actuated DoF: Unitree’s Dex5-S has 22, Tesollo’s DG-5F has 20 and the Shadow Dexterous Hand drives 20 of its 24 joints (see our robot hands comparison). Wonik Robotics’ Allegro Hand, also four-fingered, has 16. At the low end, Inspire’s RH56DFX moves 12 joints with six actuators. Boston Dynamics’ case is that four fingers and 13 DoF “already unlock in-hand reorientation, recovery from a slipping grasp, and handling tools while pressing their triggers.”

The deployment plan explains the trade. Hyundai set 2028 for Atlas on lines at its Georgia Metaplant (HMGMA) at its August 26 CEO Investor Day, beginning with 25,000 units across Hyundai and Kia plants over the next few years, plus a US plant able to build 30,000 robots a year. At the application center that opened at HMGMA on September 21, Atlas trains on parts sequencing, with component assembly targeted by 2030 — the stage where tool handling matters. Hyundai Mobis supplies Atlas’s actuators; Boston Dynamics has not said who will build the hand. Fewer actuators of a single type are cheaper to make, stock and replace across thousands of robots. Whether 13 DoF is enough will be settled by the 2030 assembly target, not the demo video.