Surge

The Surge from Alt-Bionics in San Antonio, Texas, grew out of the low-cost bionic prostheses that founder Ryan Saavedra designed first; unveiled in December 2024, it has been sold since 2025 as a hand for humanoids and robot arms. Six geared motors drive six degrees of freedom, and because the gearing is non-backdrivable the hand holds its grip without power.

At 540 g and 18.78 x 9.14 x 3.81 cm it lifts up to 18 kg and closes a four-finger grip with 35.5 N; a single finger bears 2.6 kg at the distal and 6.8 kg at the proximal segment. Closing takes at least 0.4 s at 180 degrees per second, fingers flex 90 degrees, the thumb flexes 95 and rotates 85 degrees, and repeatability is better than 1 mm.

Power is 48 V (28 to 58 V) at 25 W with 1 A peak, communication is RS485. Control uses AT commands to set joint angles per finger, call one of seven grip poses or tune PID parameters; a free SDK covers ROS, C++ and Python, and the Manus glove or a Meta Quest serve for teleoperation. Tactile sensing is optional, the standard hand only monitors its motors.

Finger modules swap out in five minutes, joints are metal and contact surfaces rubberised. Alt-Bionics lists RealMan, Kinova and Franka arms as compatible, for instance the Kinova Gen3 and the Franka Research 3. MyBotShop in Germany priced the hand at 8,925 EUR including 19 percent VAT in October 2026.