DLR-HIT Hand II

The DLR-HIT Hand II is a research hand from the Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics of the German Aerospace Center DLR, developed with the Harbin Institute of Technology and documented in publications from 2008 onward; it won an IF Design Award in 2009. Five modular fingers each have three active joints, giving 15 degrees of freedom and 15 actuators housed inside the hand.

It weighs about 1.5 kg, delivers 10 N at the fingertip and reaches joint speeds of 360 degrees per second. Every finger link carries its own sensing electronics with analogue-to-digital conversion, and data flows over a serial chain from link to finger to the hand controller; tools can be hot-swapped. Tactile sensors are not mentioned in the description.

The hand is not a commercial product but a research system, used among others on the Space Justin humanoid for teleoperation in space scenarios, so no price applies and it is on request. The same institute built the TORO humanoid. Among current 15-DoF hands, Tacta Hand matches the joint count, and the German SVH 5-Finger-Hand carries the idea into industry.