Atlas gets new hands: four fingers and 13 degrees of freedom
Boston Dynamics has unveiled a new hand for its Atlas humanoid on its official blog. Degrees of freedom rise from 7 to 13, and the design deliberately drops the little finger, leaving four fingers.
On October 1, 2026, Boston Dynamics announced a new generation of hands for Atlas on its official blog. Atlas is the work-focused humanoid whose product version was unveiled in January 2026.
What changed
- Degrees of freedom (the number of independent ways the joints can move) rise from 7 on the previous generation to 13
- Four fingers including the thumb: the thumb has 4 DOF and each of the other three fingers has 3 DOF
- The joints are directly actuated, using a single type of actuator
- Dense pressure-sensing tactile sensors cover the fingertips and palm
- It is about the size of a large human hand and as strong as the previous hand — the maker says it can carry a mini-fridge loaded with 100 lb+ (about 45 kg)
From grasping to manipulating
According to the maker, the previous hands were designed to grasp a wide variety of objects. The new generation is designed to manipulate them — moving and reorienting objects inside the hand.
Examples it lists include dexterous pinch grasps between the thumb and any other finger, tripodal grasps, and holding tools such as drills or nail guns while pulling the trigger.
Why there is no little finger
While many companies copy the five-fingered human hand, Boston Dynamics left out the pinky. Adding it would mean three more degrees of freedom, and the team decided the extra dexterity was not worth the added size, power consumption and complexity.
Designed for AI training
The hand is built so it can be simulated cleanly. This makes it easier to train with reinforcement learning (teaching AI through trial and error) in a virtual environment and transfer the result to the real robot — known as sim-to-real.
Boston Dynamics also lists mass manufacturing, low cost and reliable repair as design goals. The post does not say when Atlas units with the new hand will ship.
Compare with other humanoids
See size, uses and availability of work humanoids side by side. → Compare Atlas, Figure 03 and Optimus
Checked against the maker's official website on November 1, 2026.