The Shadow Dexterous Hand Series is described as the world’s most advanced 5-fingered humanoid robot hand, developed over 20 years of research. The full model features 20 actuated degrees of freedom plus 4 under-actuated movements across 24 total joints, weighing 4.3 kg with 5 fingers (4 plus thumb). It uses 20 DC motors with tendon-driven actuation providing independent adduct/abduct movement per finger, palm flex for thumb-to-little-finger opposition, and 2 wrist DOF for positioning flexibility. Over 100 sensors run at up to 1 kHz via EtherCAT protocol, with 40 tendon load sensors and 1 IMU. Shadow Tactile Fingertips come standard in 2 fingers, upgradeable to 5. The hand is fully ROS integrated. Three Lite variants offer reduced weight and cost: Lite (2.4 kg, 13 DOF, 16 joints, 4 fingers, 35 percent power saving), Extra Lite (2.1 kg, 10 DOF, 12 joints, 3 fingers), and Super Lite (1.8 kg, 7 DOF, 8 joints, 2 fingers). The hand is used with the Shadow Glove for intuitive teleoperation and is compatible with Universal Robots 6-DOF industrial arms. Targets research and industrial applications in AI, machine learning, nuclear, pharmaceutical, and remote maintenance.
