How the Gripper ‘Hand’ on the Boston Dynamics Atlas Humanoid Robot Has Evolved Over Time

Engineers at Boston Dynamics explained how the gripper hand" has evolved between different generations of their groundbreaking Atlas humanoid robot.

Grippers are one of the most intricate parts of a humanoid robot, packed with actuation and sensing; they need to be durable enough to handle tough jobs, but precise enough to handle fragile items.

The Atlas GR1 originally had two fingers" which were good for light lifting, but they realized that they needed to add a third, specifically an opposable thumb" on the GR2.

Grippers are one of the most intricate components of a humanoid robot. They pack tons of functionality. We have to put in a lot of actuation and sensing into a very small space. So it's a very hard design problem. ...Maybe the most important distinction from GR2 to GR1 one is the addition of a thumb, an opposable thumb. That really expands the type of grasps that it allows us to do. It really increases the flexibility of which objects we can grasp with it.

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