DH-Robotics debuts a 13-DoF direct-drive five-finger hand with swappable sensors

In short: DH-Robotics launched the ADH-5-13 at IROS 2026, a five-finger hand designed to be easier to maintain, alongside its three-finger UDH-3-7.

ADH-5-13 at a glance

• 13 active DoF: three each in thumb, index and middle; two each in ring and little finger; ±15° side motion for index and middle.
• 735 g, rated to lift up to 20 kg once an object is grasped.
• Fully direct-drive and backdrivable, dual magnetic encoders per joint, ±0.2 mm fingertip repeatability.
• Fingertip tactile sensing, with options for electronic skin, six-axis force/torque and vision-based tactile sensors.
• Sensors and modules can be swapped without dismantling the hand; the company claims this improves maintenance efficiency by 300%.

UDH-3-7

Three fingers, seven DoF, 15 kg payload, 50 N fingertip force, ±0.02 mm repeatability, one-million-cycle design life, with CAN FD, RS-485, EtherCAT, ROS 2, Isaac and MuJoCo support.

Why it matters

Hands break. A hand that can be repaired module by module is a practical step from research to deployment. DH-Robotics' pitch, "Dexterity as Productivity," is about matching the number of fingers to the task rather than always using five.