UCLA RoMeLa (Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory, University of California, Los Angeles)

RoMeLa, the Robotics and Mechanisms Laboratory at the University of California, Los Angeles, is run by Dennis Hong, best known for his legged robots. In July 2026 the lab released the open-source tactile hand MIDAS Hand together with ROBOTIS: four fingers, thirteen direct-drive Dynamixel servos and 283 three-axis PaXini taxels.

The project ships a Python API, a MuJoCo model and a teleoperation pipeline, and ROBOTIS sells an actuator bundle for self-assembly. The lab belongs to the University of California and keeps the project at midas-hand.com. It does not sell finished hands; it publishes the documentation needed to rebuild the design.