First Look at Mimic Hand M1, a Robotic Hand Purpose-Built to Match Human Skill on the Factory Floor

Mimic Robotics, based in Switzerland, revealed their Mimic Hand M1 this week. This robotic hand, designed to resemble human operation, allows you to carry on with your daily tasks without breaking a sweat. The drives are neatly hidden away in the lower arm, together with a control system that travels through the forearm to the pulleys and bearings via tendons. This shape allows the hand to remain compact while still exerting significant force and completing difficult tasks smoothly.

We’re talking about a four-pound hand, but it can handle payloads weighing more than 55 pounds. At the same time, its joints can detect microscopic forces as small as 50 grams by monitoring the motor current, and let’s not forget about the pressure sensors in the fingertips, which can detect normal pressure, sideways pressure, and even tell you exactly where anything contacts. That makes it simple to grasp onto anything delicate without destroying it, or to release a large object before it falls.

The joint action is nearly equivalent to how we function in the real world, so you can spread your fingers or tug your thumb to the opposite side. If necessary, the wrist can also be hyperextended. In terms of precision, this gadget is spot on, with a margin of error of only 0.18 millimeters and mechanical play of less than 0.3 degrees. The tendon routing method they use instead of cables makes it run silky smooth and lasts a long time because its performance is identical whether it’s on a test bench or a real production line.

The M1 is no slouch in the testing department either, since it can execute a wide range of tasks that previously required actual fingers, including precision work. For example, you can use tweezers to pick up a packaged chip, place it on a circuit board, and hammer it home; pick up a bolt, snare it with two fingertips before switching it to another hand; and even move individual fingers to make a peace sign, all while using a camera and touch feedback in situations where things are dispersed.

A wearable device known as the U1 allows people to guide others through new tasks in a completely natural manner. Then you simply put on the exoskeleton and complete the task at normal speed and force, while the wearable records the various angles, forces, and camera views, which the robotic arm will use later. That data is then sent into the training pipeline, along with a large amount of typical human video, resulting in a considerably superior setup that behaves like a human would, rather than depending on fancy remote controls or simple re-targeting.