The dexterous hand has entered the "mass production-oriented" stage: the technological competition in degrees of freedom has been upgraded to over 20, with rapid cost reduction and practical functionality going hand in hand.

Recently, the first domestic professional exhibition focusing on the entire industrial chain of humanoid robots, the 2025 Hangzhou International Humanoid Robot and Robotics Technology Exhibition, was held in Hangzhou. As the component closest to the "human structure", the dexterous hands of humanoid robots have attracted much attention. The booths of enterprises such as Qiangnao Technology and Lingxin Qiaoshou have become hotspots for professionals to communicate and negotiate.

Judging from the exhibition site, the configurations of humanoid robots from enterprises such as Tesla, Unitree Technology, Hechuan Technology (688320.SH), and Shanghai Zhuoyide have been initially determined. A reporter from Cailian Press interviewed several enterprises in the dexterous hand industrial chain and learned that currently, the development of dexterous hands is now oriented towards mass production. "Rapid cost reduction" and "practical functions" are being promoted simultaneously in the dexterous hand industry. In terms of price, the prices of dexterous hand products from some domestic enterprises have dropped to less than 10,000 yuan. The "hundred - yuan era" is approaching, and consumer - grade dexterous hands are no longer a luxury. However, a leading dexterous hand enterprise said that it is expected that the dexterous hand industry may not turn profitable until two years later.

Degree - of - freedom technology competition has increased to over 20

In recent years, the technological iteration of dexterous hands for humanoid robots has accelerated. "Our dexterous hand products are now iterated about once every six months. Our 'Second - generation Hand' has just been launched and is in mass production, and the 'Third - generation Hand' may be launched by the end of this year," a relevant person from Qiangnao Technology told a reporter from Cailian Press, adding that the company already has an annual production capacity of over 30,000 units.

Coincidentally, Zhou Chen, the CEO of Lingqiao Intelligence, also told a reporter from Cailian Press that the company holds product launches about twice a year, once in spring and once in autumn.

It is worth noting that the degree - of - freedom technology competition for dexterous hands has increased from the initial over 10 to over 20. For example, the first - generation dexterous hand of Tesla's Optimus has 11 degrees of freedom, and the third - generation has increased to 22. In this context, domestic enterprises are also making the increase in degrees of freedom a key factor in the iteration of dexterous hand products.

"We can also make dexterous hands with a higher degree of freedom, but the side effects are higher costs, higher failure rates, and higher weights. The reason for our current degree - of - freedom design is based on user feedback. It can complete over 90% of the movements of a human hand, and the cost can be reduced to the threshold of 20,000 yuan. We think this is a cost - effective product. In the future, we may increase the degrees of freedom to some extent, but we won't compare with human hands," said the relevant person from Qiangnao Technology mentioned above.

The degree of freedom is a key indicator to measure the flexibility of a mechanical system. According to the classic anatomical work "Grant's Atlas of Anatomy" and the authoritative computer graphics literature "Handrix", the human hand's motion system consists of 21 degrees of freedom (excluding the degree of freedom of the palm arc) and 2 degrees of freedom at the wrist. For dexterous hands, the higher the degrees of freedom of the hand, the more delicate and complex movements it can make.

"The dexterous hand we make is called the 'Spirit - like Dexterous Hand'. Its configuration is closer to that of a human hand, and its function is also closer to the wire - driven mode of a human hand. The underlying operation logic is also closer to human operation and control skills. The DexHand021 Pro has fully reached the level of a human hand in terms of degrees of freedom. After developing this product to imitate the human hand, there is no need to compete further in terms of structure, but we can improve the reliability and lifespan of the dexterous hand," said Zhou Chen.

Price is expected to drop from 10,000 yuan to the 100 - yuan range

The dexterous hand is the most complex component of humanoid robots and is closest to the "human structure". At the same time, it also faces challenges in development costs, precision, and integration. According to relevant data from the China Merchant Industry Research Institute, the global market size of robotic dexterous hands was 1.507 billion US dollars in 2023 and is expected to reach 3.035 billion US dollars by 2030, with a CAGR of 14.5%.

Yang Rui, an analyst at Huaxi Securities, said in a research report released on May 27 that dexterous hands are the key to the implementation of humanoid robots. The subsequent updates and iterations still have a relatively high technical difficulty. Manufacturers with the ability to design and produce dexterous hand bodies are expected to have greater say in the industrial chain and may be in a leading position in terms of profitability.

Elon Musk has publicly stated that in the future, the cost of Tesla's humanoid robots will be controlled at around 10,000 US dollars, and the selling price is expected to be 20,000 US dollars. According to a statistics by iyiou.com, the cost of dexterous hands accounts for 14% - 18% of the total cost of humanoid robots. This means that there is still a large room for price reduction of the dexterous hands of humanoid robots at present.

It is reported that currently, the regular version (without tactile sense) of Qiangnao Technology's "Second - generation Hand" is sold at 20,000 yuan (per single hand, the same below), and the tactile version is sold at 35,000 yuan. The former is in stock, while the delivery cycle of the latter is 2 - 3 weeks.

"The reason for the large price difference between the regular version and the tactile version is that, first of all, the capacitive tactile solution is relatively expensive. It's not just about adding chips; the control also needs to be improved. Secondly, the increase in interactive data of the tactile version leads to an increase in the cost of communication protocols," the relevant person from Qiangnao Technology told a reporter from Cailian Press. At present, it seems that the dexterous hand may not achieve profitability until two years later. If the company's dexterous hand sales can exceed 100,000 units, the price is expected to drop to four - digit numbers.

The "High - end Manufacturing Industry Tracking (May 2025)" released by WK Securities on June 12 pointed out that the dexterous hand is splitting into two development directions: one is high degrees of freedom + high dexterity (represented by Tesla), and the other is to promote large - scale commercialization through rapid cost reduction while ensuring 6 - 7 active degrees of freedom.

Data shows that currently, the 07 dexterous hand launched by Lingxin Qiaoshou is sold at only 8,800 yuan, and the e - hand6 launched by Huiling Technology is sold at only 2,999 yuan, becoming benchmark products that are "sufficient and can be mass - produced" in industrial applications. Lingxin Qiaoshou said that it hopes to reduce the price of its 0 - series products to 499 yuan in the next three years.

In terms of data collection for dexterous hands, low - cost solutions have also emerged. Yudie Technology has launched the UDCAP VR glove, which can be used for data collection of dexterous hands of humanoid robots. Currently, the price on the company's official website is 4,396 yuan. The core technology of Yudie Technology is an elastic sensing technology based on innovative materials. Compared with traditional solutions, this solution can significantly reduce costs.

"Replace instead of repair" may become an industry trend

As leading enterprises in the dexterous hand field, at present, both Qiangnao Technology and Lingqiao Intelligence have launched after - sales services of "replace instead of repair". The difference is that currently, Qiangnao Technology's "replace instead of repair" service only applies to its own products, while Lingqiao Intelligence opens this service to dexterous hands (with three or more fingers) of all brands, and the replacement object is the mass - produced version of its representative product, the DexHand021.

Zhou Chen told a reporter from Cailian Press that the "replace instead of repair" activity launched by Lingqiao Intelligence includes two aspects: first, the company will replace products instead of repairing them during the warranty period; second, it offers a "trade - in" service. No matter which enterprise produces the dexterous hand, it can be replaced with a new dexterous hand from the company (the maximum discount is 50% of the selling price of Lingqiao Intelligence's new products, and the depreciation assessment is provided by Lingqiao Intelligence).

According to Zhou Chen, if a customer purchases a large number of dexterous hands, the company will reserve some "spare hands" for them to ensure that production will not stop if there is a problem with the dexterous hands. The new hands can be used first, and the old ones can be sent back later. If the purchase volume is small, the company's engineers will first provide online guidance to help customers solve the problem. If it doesn't work, the dexterous hand will be sent back, and at the same time, the company will send a new one to the customer.

In Zhou Chen's view, as an industrial product, dexterous hands should give users a clear quality expectation, which will lower the psychological threshold for users to purchase and is also conducive to building the company's reputation. At the same time, "replace instead of repair" can avoid the phenomenon of "bad money driving out good money" in the industry.

The relevant person from Qiangnao Technology said that "replace instead of repair" is becoming a trend in the dexterous hand industry. "We currently have three main types of customers: disabled people, B - end customers (industrial end), and humanoid robot manufacturers. Among them, the B - end customers have an agreement with the company. If production stops for a few hours due to the dexterous hands, the company has to pay compensation. In the future, the company may provide repair after - sales services, but it needs to be based on optimizing the modular design of the internal structure of the dexterous hands. At that time, repair will only require replacing the corresponding modules to ensure a faster response speed."

This article is from the WeChat official account "Growth Enterprise Market Observation", author: Wang Bin. It is published by 36Kr with authorization.