Customer context: Researchers, labs, humanoid builders and AI teams needing a canonical high-DoF hand platform.
Deployment model: Commercial specialist end-effector in Shadow Robot's Dexterous Hand series.
Commercial maturity: Commercial and long-running research platform with public specs and broad research recognition.
Adoption constraints: Adoption depends on cost, integration complexity, maintenance, control software, tactile requirements and task fit.
Market position: Canonical dexterous-hand research platform for testing high-DoF manipulation, tactile sensing and learning workflows.
Adjacent products: AGILINK SkillHand, Linker Hand L30, DexRobot DexHand021 Pro, OceanTrix hand
Audience
Researchers
Workflow
Dexterous grasping, tactile sensing, teleoperation, sim-to-real learning and manipulation research.
Deployment environment
Robotics labs, AI research settings, teleoperation systems and humanoid or arm-based manipulation testbeds.
Specifications
Weight Range: 4.3 kg classic hand; 2.4 kg Lite; 2.1 kg Extra Lite; 1.8 kg Super Lite
Degrees of freedom: 20 actuated DOF plus 4 under-actuated movements on the classic five-finger hand; Lite variants range from 7-13 DOF
actuation and motion control: Tendon-driven architecture with DC motors
Tactile Sensing: Over 100 sensors at up to 1 kHz; Shadow Tactile Fingertip options across the series
Interface: EtherCAT host control loop; ROS open-source platform support
Supported Platforms: Can be integrated with robot arms, including Universal Robots arm option in Shadow documentation
Variant Summary: Classic Shadow Dexterous Hand plus Lite, Extra Lite and Super Lite variants trade fingers, actuators and weight for lower payload on mobile-manipulation or arm-mounted setups.
Family specifications
Shadow Dexterous Hand - Degrees of freedom: 20 actuated DoF + 4 under-actuated movements - Weight: 4.3 kg - Control: 1 kHz EtherCAT host loop - Fingers: 4 fingers + thumb - Actuators: 20 DC motors - Wrist Dof: 2
Shadow Dexterous Hand Lite - Degrees of freedom: 13 DoF across 16 joints - Weight: 2.4 kg - Control: 1 kHz EtherCAT host loop - Fingers: 3 fingers + thumb - Actuators: 13 DC motors - Wrist Dof: 0
Shadow Dexterous Hand Extra Lite - Degrees of freedom: 10 DoF across 12 joints - Weight: 2.1 kg - Control: 1 kHz EtherCAT host loop - Fingers: 2 fingers + thumb - Actuators: 10 DC motors - Wrist Dof: 0
Shadow Dexterous Hand Super Lite - Degrees of freedom: 7 DoF across 8 joints - Weight: 1.8 kg - Control: 1 kHz EtherCAT host loop - Fingers: 1 finger + thumb - Actuators: 7 DC motors - Wrist Dof: 0
Tags
Peer Group: Dexterous robotic hand, Robot hand components
Workflow: End-effector manipulation
Capability: Tactile Dexterity, Robotic grasping, Force control