TR01 “Heavy”: an Upgraded Hand with Stronger Fingers and a New Camera

While we’re working on more dexterous policies, a hardware update: our TR01 Hand got an upgrade. The new version has stronger motors at every joint, better packaged electronics, better cable routing, and a new camera model and mounting location. We kept the unique kinematic structure that allows perfect tracking of human fingertips for teleoperation, and, of course, the integration with the Popcorn touch sensors. The TR01 “Heavy” can thus be very gentle when it needs to, but also apply higher force (more than 20N at the fingertip) if appropriate. The new camera has lower latency, faster frame rate and higher resolution; while single-camera setups are inherently limited in terms of depth information, we also expect the offset mount point to provide an advantage over the previous location in the middle of the palm. We’re currently testing this upgrade for our full range of autonomous policies, and expect it to become our standard platform for skill development for the next few months, in parallel with the three-fingered TR02 hand.