The hand carries 13 degrees of freedom, nearly double the seven on the previous three-fingered generation, with four axes in the thumb and three in each of the other fingers.
It is slightly larger and, on average, stronger than a human hand.
In a video released with the announcement, Atlas loaded a bit into a power drill and bored into wood, tightened a small nut by fingertip.
Engineers dropped the little finger after Chief Product and Technology Officer Zack Jackowski asked the team to tape their pinky and ring fingers together for a day.
"At the end of the experiment we had agreement: no pinky," the company said in a blog post.
Pressure sensors blanket the fingertips and palm, and the direct-drive joints were designed to be simulated with high fidelity, letting the company train grasping policies through reinforcement learning in simulation before loading them onto the machine.
Hyundai and Kia will take 25,000 of the robots across their global plants over the next few years, with component assembly targeted for 2030
AJP Takeaways
- Boston Dynamics unveiled a new four-fingered hand for its Atlas humanoid robot on Oct. 1, 2026, replacing the three-fingered design used until now.
- The hand has 13 degrees of freedom against seven in the previous generation, with pressure sensors across the fingertips and palm and direct-drive actuators chosen for durability and mass production.
- Hyundai Motor Group, which owns Boston Dynamics, is training Atlas on real parts at the Robotics Metaplant Application Center in Georgia, opened Sept. 21, 2026, ahead of a planned 25,000-unit rollout at Hyundai and Kia plants.
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