Boston Dynamics unveils 13-DOF Atlas hand without a pinky

Boston Dynamics on Oct. 1, 2026 announced a new Atlas hand with four fingers, 13 degrees of freedom, encapsulated direct-drive actuators and no pinky, designed for mass manufacturing and sim-to-real reinforcement learning. The company said the prior seven-DOF gripper was built to grasp objects, while this generation is meant to manipulate them, including pinch, tripodal and triggered-tool grasps such as drills and welding torches. IEEE Spectrum and The Robot Report independently reported the announcement the same day.