PSYONIC partners with ABB Robotics to apply human touch to robot dexterity

GoFa helps test PSYONIC’s Ability Hand for robotics, combining touch sensing, compliant design, and human-derived training data. Source: ABB Robotics

ABB Robotics LLC today said it is collaborating with PSYONIC to advance dexterous robotic manipulation by using real-world data from human prosthetic users. The partners are combining ABB’s GoFa force- and power-limited robot with the PSYONIC Ability Hand to explore how touch and motion data can train robots to perform tasks that have been difficult to automate.

ABB Robotics added that manipulation is central to its “Autonomous Versatile Robotics” (AVR) goal of robots that can sense, reason, move, and precisely handle objects in dynamic environments. The ability to learn from real-world interactions and reliably apply those lessons will also advance physical AI , said the company , which ABB Group sold to SoftBank for $5.3 billion in October 2025.

“Human dexterity and the instinctive understanding of how to handle different objects is one of the most difficult things to replicate in industrial-grade robotics, but it’s a fundamental need for truly autonomous and versatile robots,” stated Marc Segura, president of ABB Robotics.

“As we develop the next-generation physical AI, robots will learn and understand the world as we do,” he added. “This collaboration with PSYONIC will help to close the long-standing gap between human and robot dexterity, opening up new possibilities for a wide range of industries.”

Founded in 2015, PSYONIC originally developed its Ability Hand for prosthetic use. It combines myoelectric control, touch sensing, and compliant mechanics in a lightweight, multi-articulating design. The gripper ‘s pressure sensors and vibration feedback system enable users to detect contact, grip force, and release, while flexible fingers conform naturally to irregular and deformable objects.

“Our prosthetic hand has already been FDA-approved, and we’ve got over 300 patients using it already,” Dr. Adeel Akhtar, founder and CEO of PSYONIC, told The Robot Report . “It’s covered by Medicare in the U.S., but when we did our nationwide release, Meta was an early purchaser. We started more on the prosthetic side and less on the robotic side, but in the past year, that has flipped because physical AI has been exploding.”

Suction and parallel jaw grippers have limitations, such as needing a tool changer, which can be a point of delay, failure, or time-consuming maintenance, he said. With deformable objects such as clothing and workcells built around humans, a five-fingered hand made sense for both industrial and service tasks.