Honda is developing its Avatar Robot with dexterous multi-fingered hands and AI-assisted teleoperation to support complex tasks where human access is limited, including healthcare, infrastructure maintenance, disaster response, and space exploration. In the demonstration, an operator wearing MANUS Metagloves Pro Haptic and a headset controls the robot’s two multi-fingered hands to perform a tool-based screw-tightening task.
Honda’s multi-fingered hands each have 16 active degrees of freedom and use its proprietary ‘Willow Drive’ actuation system. MANUS Metagloves Pro Haptic capture the operator’s finger movements in real time, supplying hand motion data to the teleoperation system. Honda’s control framework translates this input into robotic hand motion, allowing the operator to direct finger articulation during tool handling.
The operator determines the intended action, while Honda’s AI support system assists execution by adjusting hand position and the balance of grasping forces. Fingertip force sensors, tactile sensors, and cameras provide information about contact with the object, helping the system assess and correct the grasp.
Honda also describes vibration feedback through the MANUS Metagloves Pro Haptic to convey contact information. Together, human hand motion input, robot sensing, and AI-assisted control support remote manipulation while keeping the operator involved in task decisions.
