Two companies are betting that the secret to more capable robots lies in studying how humans actually grip things. ABB Robotics and PSYONIC have announced a collaboration aimed at advancing robotic dexterity using human-generated data, according to Business Wire.
At the center of the partnership is PSYONIC's Ability Hand, a prosthetic-inspired device now being tested in a robotics context. ABB's GoFa collaborative robot arm is being used as the testing platform, combining the mechanical reach of an industrial arm with the hand's fine motor capabilities.
The companies describe grasping and dexterity as "a core capability for Autonomous Versatile Robotics," a phrase ABB uses to frame its broader vision for adaptable machines. The implication is that robots capable of reliably picking up, manipulating, and releasing objects of varying shapes and sizes remain a persistent engineering challenge — one this partnership is trying to address by drawing on real human movement data rather than purely synthetic inputs.
PSYONIC's background in prosthetics puts it in an unusual position: its technology was originally designed to replicate human hand function for amputees, which means it was built from the ground up around human biomechanics. Applying that foundation to industrial robotics represents a crossover between the medical device world and the automation industry.
If the approach works, it could help close one of the most stubborn gaps in robotics — the ability to handle unpredictable objects in unstructured environments, which is exactly what separates today's factory robots from the flexible, general-purpose machines the industry has long promised.