Tesla explained that it has improved the humanoid robot Optimus in new hands

The recent demonstration of the humanoid robot Tesla Optimus, which in the video caught tennis balls with its updated hand, was primarily attracted by the smoothness and naturalness of the movements of the limb, but company representatives did not hide the fact that the robot was once again controlled by a person. But they told us what had changed in the design of the robot’s new arms.

Image source: X, Tesla Optimus

As Electrek explains, Optimus project manager Milan Kovac spoke about the changes to the robot’s arms, which he literally received as a gift on the so-called “Black Friday.” According to a Tesla representative, the new manipulators still need to be finalized by the end of this year, mainly in terms of the ability of the new hands to tactilely recognize different types of surfaces. In this, the new robot hands are significantly superior to the previous version, and a particular difficulty in their creation was maintaining adequate sensitivity, taking into account the appearance of an external covering reminiscent of human skin and flesh. According to Kovacs, the new hand has a protective coating on the fingers and palm, which is quite soft and pliable to the touch, but at the same time allows tactile recognition of various surfaces with acceptable accuracy.

The kinematics of the fingers was significantly improved due to the appearance of some semblance of human tendons. The actuators that set them in motion are concentrated in the forearm. This slightly increased the mass of the corresponding part of the robot’s arm, but compared to the previous version, the mass of the forearm was also optimized. As noted earlier, the Optimus robot’s hand has 22 degrees of freedom, only slightly inferior to a human’s; the wrist and forearm add three more degrees of freedom. Such accurate adherence to human anatomy will be useful not so much in the production of humanoid robots, but in the creation of bionic prostheses that can be used by people who have lost an upper limb. Tesla CEO Elon Musk mentioned the corresponding plans publicly.