Boston Dynamics gives Atlas a four-finger, 13-joint hand

Boston Dynamics unveiled on 1 October 2026 a new hand for its electric Atlas humanoid. It has four fingers rather than five: a thumb with 4 degrees of freedom and three fingers with 3 each, for 13 in total, up from 7 on the previous Atlas hand. Every joint is driven directly by a single type of actuator, with no cables crossing the joints, and dense pressure sensors cover the fingertips and the palm.

The company says the earlier hand was built to grasp a wide range of objects, while this one is built to manipulate them once held: pinch and tripod grasps, turning an object in the hand, recovering from slips, and pulling the trigger of tools such as drills, torque drivers, grinders, nail guns and welding torches. Boston Dynamics also says the hand can carry a loaded minifridge of more than 45 kg and is designed for mass manufacturing.

The little finger was dropped by design. According to The Robot Report, the team concluded that a fifth finger would add three more degrees of freedom, size and power draw for little gain in dexterity on the tasks Atlas is meant to perform.