Xiaomi Reveals Advanced Bionic Hand Developed From Factory Procedures
Xiaomi has disclosed research progress on a 21-degree-of-freedom bionic hand designed for flexible manufacturing and factory work. The development update features 26 motors, a palm weighing 324 g, and 1,500 tactile sensing points.
The company emphasised that this is a research update rather than a product launch, with no commercial availability or pricing announced. The robotics team analysed 2,579 standard operating procedures from 16 typical workstation types at an electric vehicle unit pilot production centre.
Researchers selected 1,827 of those procedures for video and motion-capture recording to cover more than 70.8% of manual work procedures. Xiaomi utilised this dataset alongside joint movement analysis to determine that 21 degrees of freedom represents the current balance point for industrial tasks.
Evaluations showed an average stable-grasp success rate 15% to 38% higher than versions with six to 15 degrees of freedom. Going beyond 23 degrees of freedom produced clearly diminishing returns according to company metrics.
The hardware utilises a hybrid drive system featuring 26 total motors, five direct-drive degrees of freedom, and a tendon-driven mechanism. Placing the tendon motors in the forearm keeps the palm weight down to 324 g, which reduces inertia and sharpens control response.
Tactile sensing covers the entire palm with 1,500 points offering a 1 mm spatial resolution under the fingers and a 2 mm resolution in the palm. To manage heat generated by the 26 motors, the team created a thermal prediction model and a heat-dissipating fabric.
The model forecasts temperature changes five to 10 minutes ahead within an accuracy of better than 3 °C to schedule cooling in advance. The project reflects an ongoing loop where factory procedures inform new robotic hardware specifications.
Xiaomi published research details on a 21-degree-of-freedom bionic hand built for flexible manufacturing.
The hand features 26 motors, a 324 g palm, and 1,500 tactile sensing points.
Design specifications were derived from 1,827 recorded manual procedures across electric vehicle manufacturing workstations.
The system includes a thermal prediction model capable of forecasting temperature changes five to 10 minutes ahead within 3 °C.
Source: Pandaily
