# NEO's Hands | An API to the Physical World

_Tuesday, July 14, 2026 at 8:00 AM EDT · Robotics · Latest · Tier 2 — Notable_

![NEO's Hands | An API to the Physical World — Primary](https://cdn.sanity.io/images/qka6yvsc/production/dda3401c63234b7b18047dbbb610c6b2ace0b2c1-1800x945.jpg?fit=max&auto=format)

NEO announced breakthrough 25 Degree of Freedom tendon-driven hands for its humanoid platform, achieving near human-level dexterity, strength, safety, and reliability. The hands are designed to remove the hardware ceiling on what humanoid robots can do, making data the only barrier to capabilities. They are IP68 waterproof and food-safe, with peak torques up to 3.5 Nm at the thumb CMC and 2.6 Nm at finger MCP joints, and ±0.2 mm positioning accuracy. The hands feature rich tactile sensing across fingertips and surfaces, measuring normal force, contact location, and shear, enabling real-time slip detection and adaptive manipulation. Developed from the ground up by the company's engineering team, the hands run quasi-direct-drive tendons via the 1X Tendon Drive at low gear ratios of approximately 5:1 to 15:1, with all 25 degrees of freedom natively force-controlled and fully backdrivable. The hands ship on every NEO platform.

## Sources

- [1x.tech](https://www.1x.tech/discover/neos-hands)

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Canonical: https://techandbusiness.org/newswire/y1PGz9YaK2U8EH89Ibc8IB
Retrieved: 2026-07-14T22:55:04.805Z
Publisher: Tech & Business (techandbusiness.org)