Linker Hand L20

Force is the selling point of the Linker Hand L20 from Beijing-based Linkerbot: five fingers grip with 100 N, each of the four fingers delivers 20 N and the thumb 15 N, and the maximum load is 20 kg.

The hand has 21 degrees of freedom, 16 active and 5 passive, moved by the maker's own joint module through linkage transmission, and weighs about 1,200 g. The four fingers flex at 3.5 rad/s, roughly 200 degrees per second, the thumb at 1.52 rad/s, with 0.2 mm repeatability. There is no tactile sensing. Interfaces are CAN or RS-485, supply 24 to 48 V with 0.3, 0.4 and 1.8 A current draw.

Linkerbot notes that figures vary by configuration and version; the slimmed-down L20 Lite has 10 active and 10 passive degrees of freedom, 800 g, 25 kg load and 80 N grip. Price on request. Uses are humanoids and research.

The DH2116 Series shares the 16 active plus 5 passive split, while the lighter siblings are the Linker Hand L6 and the fully actuated Linker Hand O30.