Atlas Gets a 13-Degree-of-Freedom Hand With No Pinky and No Published Grip Force

Boston Dynamics published a new hand for its Atlas humanoid on October 1, 2026: four fingers, 13 degrees of freedom and no pinky, with no grip force, payload or price attached.

The details come from The Robot Report and IEEE Spectrum, both of which spoke to company engineers, including Alberto Rodriguez, Boston Dynamics' director of robot behavior.

What 13 degrees of freedom adds up to

The thumb carries 4 degrees of freedom and each of the other three fingers carries 3, which is 4 + 3 × 3 = 13. IEEE Spectrum reports the previous Atlas hand had 7.

The number matters less than how it is built. The Robot Report says the hand is directly actuated with a single actuator type, backdrivable, and fully encapsulated with no exposed cables. Spectrum adds that the actuators are larger and fewer than in humanlike designs, sit in modular packs that can be swapped one at a time, and that no tendons or cables cross a joint.

The Robot Report also lists dense pressure sensors across the fingertips and palm, and a thumb that can slide along the other fingers.

Feature	New Atlas hand	Source
Degrees of freedom	13 (previous hand: 7)	Robot Report, Spectrum
Thumb / each finger	4 / 3	Robot Report
Actuation	Direct drive, one actuator type, no tendons	Robot Report, Spectrum
Tactile sensing	Pressure sensors on fingertips and palm	Robot Report
Grip force, payload, price	Not published	Both

1. Previous Atlas hand7 DOF
2. New Atlas hand13 DOF

Source: IEEE Spectrum and The Robot Report, accessed 2026-10-02

Why the pinky went

Per The Robot Report, Rodriguez said the design comes down to a trade between competing objectives. Dylan Thrush, a Boston Dynamics mechanical engineer, said the extra tasks a fifth finger would allow were not worth the added complexity.

Spectrum quotes Rodriguez calling hands a ruthless design trade-off and says many current designs give up reliability and manufacturability. It reports a production target of 100,000 units a year, with no start date given.

A hand with fewer, larger actuators is a bet on cost and repair time rather than on matching a human's range. That bet only pays if the hand survives a factory shift.

What has not been published

Both outlets say the same thing by omission. There is no payload figure, no grip force in newtons, no torque rating, no speed, no cost and no durability testing in either report.

Compare the two humanoid stories already on this site. Our report on Agility's Digit 5 found $300 million in orders covering fewer than 1,000 robots, and Feather Robotics put a $29,990 price on its robot. Boston Dynamics has put a joint count on a hand and nothing else.

The Robot Report notes the recent opening of the Robotics Metaplant Application Center at Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Georgia, where Atlas is planned for automotive work. Neither outlet ties the new hand to a deployment date there.

What would change my read is a cycle-life figure: grasp cycles to failure, at a named grip force in newtons. Until Boston Dynamics publishes one, 13 degrees of freedom describes a design, not a capability.