# COVVI

> Source: https://aiwiki.ai/wiki/covvi
> Updated: 2026-07-06
> Categories: Robot Hardware, Robotics, Robotics Companies
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**COVVI Ltd** is a British medical technology company based in Leeds, England, that designs and manufactures myoelectric upper-limb prostheses. Its flagship product is the **COVVI Hand**, a multi-articulated [bionic hand](/wiki/bionic_hand) that reads electrical signals from a wearer's residual-limb muscles and converts them into finger motion. The same device is sold in the United States as the **Nexus Hand**, and it was under that name that the product won its early design awards.[1][9][10] COVVI is one of a small group of makers of multi-grip [dexterous hand](/wiki/dexterous_hand) prostheses, competing with established firms such as Ossur (i-Limb) and Ottobock (bebionic) and newer entrants such as [PSYONIC](/wiki/psyonic), [Open Bionics](/wiki/open_bionics) and [Alt-Bionics](/wiki/alt_bionics). In 2022 it became the first company to supply a multi-articulated hand funded by the National Health Service (NHS) in England, and it has since extended the technology into industrial robotics through a subsidiary, COVVI Robotics.[12][17]

## At a glance

| Field | Detail |
| --- | --- |
| Founded | 2017 (incorporated 25 August 2017 as Objectiv-X Limited; renamed COVVI in October 2018) |
| Founder and CEO | Simon Pollard |
| Headquarters | Direct House, Quayside Business Park, Hunslet, Leeds, England |
| Industry | Upper-limb prosthetics; robotics |
| Key products | COVVI Hand (Nexus Hand); COVVI Go app; COVVI Robotic Hand |
| Website | covvi.com |

## History

COVVI traces its origins to a company incorporated in Leeds on 25 August 2017 under the name Objectiv-X Limited. The business was renamed COVVI Limited on 9 October 2018.[3] The name is a portmanteau of the Latin words "coperor" and "vita", which the company glosses as "working together" and "life"; it explains the doubled "v" as a reference to multiple lives changed.[2]

The founder and group chief executive is Simon Pollard, a Leeds entrepreneur whose earlier ventures included the national telecoms company Intouch Advance, which he built over roughly two decades. Pollard was brought in to invest in and lead the new prosthetics venture, working alongside an engineering team that already had experience in prosthetic design.[4][5] COVVI's stated aim from the outset was to build a device that was both accessible and technically advanced, and to treat customer service and clinical support as being as important as the hardware itself.[4] The company positions itself within the broader British upper-limb prosthetics tradition, though no direct corporate link to earlier UK makers such as RSLSteeper (the original developer of the bebionic hand, later acquired by Ottobock) has been documented.

COVVI launched its first prototype in 2019 for beta testing, and the commercial hand followed. The company reports having since fitted the device to hundreds of users.[2] By late 2022 it was reporting rapid commercial growth, including a roughly 400 percent increase in its network of global distributors and a turnover approaching 2 million pounds.[4][13] To keep pace with demand, COVVI expanded its production space at Quayside Business Park in Leeds, added new staff and set a target of building around 100 hands per month.[13][14]

## The COVVI Hand (Nexus Hand)

The COVVI Hand is a self-contained, multi-articulated myoelectric hand that attaches to a custom prosthetic socket. It has five individually powered fingers, so each digit is driven by its own motor rather than all fingers moving together, which lets the hand adopt a wide range of grip shapes. The thumb is separately powered for both flexion and rotation: a twin-motor design lets it move between opposed and non-opposed positions and complete a full rotation or flex in around 0.3 seconds.[6][7] All of the fingers and the thumb can also flex passively, so they give way if the hand is knocked rather than resisting and risking damage.[9]

The hand is offered in three sizes and several colours. Published dimensions are roughly 168 mm (small), 179 mm (medium) and 189 mm (large), and the fitted weights, including the flex wrist, are about 647 g, 672 g and 703 g respectively.[6][7] The outer cover is a flexible silicone glove combined with neoprene and impact-resistant polymers; it integrates with the chassis to resist migration and give protection where it is needed. The hand carries an IP44 ingress rating, meaning it is protected against solid objects larger than 1 mm and against water splashes, but it is not submersible.[6][9]

A distinctive feature is a small e-paper display on the back of the hand that shows the current grip, the active grip table, battery status and system notifications; COVVI describes it as the first prosthetic hand to include such a screen.[10] The index fingertip is touchscreen compatible, and every fingertip contains a force-sensitive resistor that the hand uses to sense contact and manage grip transitions.[6][7]

### Grips, force and payload

COVVI advertises more than 24 programmable grip patterns, selectable and configurable through its companion app. These range from power and precision grips to task-specific poses such as a mouse grip, a glove grip to help with dressing, and a tripod pinch tuned for visibility of small objects.[8] Reported performance figures include:

| Specification | Value |
| --- | --- |
| Grip force (power grip) | up to 90 N (about 20 lbf) |
| Grip force (tripod / key) | about 35 N tripod, 22 N key |
| Grip patterns | 24+ programmable |
| Powered digits | 5 individually driven fingers plus powered thumb (flexion and rotation) |
| Closing speed | about 0.6 s fully open to closed; about 0.4 s in tripod |
| Picking payload | up to 30 kg (66 lb) distributed across the fingers |
| Load over the knuckles | up to 90 kg (198 lb) upward force |
| Per-finger limit | about 16 kg (35 lb) |
| Sizes | small, medium, large |
| Weight (with flex wrist) | 647 g to 703 g by size |
| Ingress protection | IP44 |
| Warranty | 24 months standard, extendable to 36 or 60 |

The wrist is an integrated flex wrist that allows the hand to be tilted back, for example to push a trolley or steer, and that can be locked at flexion, extension or a neutral position using a single-button mechanism the company calls Free Lock. COVVI offers a choice of wrist types.[6][7][8]

## Control and the COVVI Go app

Like other myoelectric prostheses, the COVVI Hand is driven by electromyography (EMG): surface electrodes built into the socket pick up the small electrical signals produced when the wearer contracts the remaining muscles of the forearm or residual limb, and the hand's controller turns those signals into open and close commands.[9] Users switch between stored grip patterns using muscle-signal triggers together with a thumb rocker switch and a thumb-tap trigger on the hand itself, and a standby mode helps prevent unintended activation.[7][9] Because the grips are pre-programmed and the thumb repositions itself automatically for each grip, the wearer does not have to shape every finger individually.

Configuration is handled through **COVVI Go**, a companion app for iOS and Android that connects to the hand over Bluetooth. The app organises grips into four "tables" of up to six grips each, so a user can, for example, keep one set of grips for home and another for work. Its input settings map the responsiveness of the hand to the strength of the user's signals, and it lets the user set how grips are switched.[11] The app also delivers over-the-air firmware updates, a capability COVVI markets as "Live Config", so new features and fixes can be pushed to fielded hands without returning them to the factory.[10][11]

A notable element is **Remote Assist**, which lets a COVVI representative or an accredited clinician connect to a user's hand from anywhere in the world to adjust its settings in a one-to-one session, rather than requiring an in-person clinic visit. Account creation is gated: a user must be authorised by a clinician before first sign-in.[11]

## Regulation and access

In Great Britain, external upper-limb prostheses are regulated as medical devices, which must be registered with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency and carry UKCA or CE marking. COVVI operates a quality-management system certified to ISO 13485 (medical devices) and ISO 9001, the certifications it cites for its robotics products.[17] The company holds several UK patents on the hand, with further applications filed or granted in the United States and Europe.[10]

A significant milestone for access came through the NHS. In September 2022, NHS England approved funding for multi-grip (multi-articulated) prosthetic hands for eligible patients, and in June 2023 COVVI reported that it had supplied the first such hand through the NHS, to Roland Hough, a 68-year-old user who completed a one-month trial. Eligibility in England covers people who have had an upper-limb amputation or who were born with a congenital upper-limb deficiency.[12] In the United States the hand is distributed under the Nexus name by Hanger, one of the country's largest providers of orthotic and prosthetic care.[9]

## Reception and milestones

COVVI's hand has been recognised in design and industry awards. As NEXUS by COVVI it won a Gold award in the healthcare and prostheses category of the 2022 NY Product Design Awards, and the company took honours at the 2022 European Product Design Awards.[10] Founder Simon Pollard was named an Insider Yorkshire Entrepreneur of the Month, and COVVI was listed among Insider's most exciting Yorkshire companies for 2023.[4]

The company has also pushed its technology beyond individual prosthetics into [robotics](/wiki/robotics). In May 2023, COVVI announced a partnership with the engineering firm Atkins (part of SNC-Lavalin, later AtkinsRealis) to adapt the bionic hand for the nuclear industry. The plan is to mount a hardened version of the hand on a collaborative robot arm, such as the Kinova Gen3 that Atkins already uses, so that glovebox tasks handling radioactive materials can be performed by remote control with near-human dexterity, reducing the need for workers to place their hands inside gloveboxes. The work is aimed at sites such as Sellafield and is supported by a digital-twin system for rehearsing operations.[15][16]

In January 2025, the COVVI Robotics arm formally unveiled the **COVVI Robotic Hand**, an industrial and research version of the technology with five individually positionable fingers, pre-set grips and teleoperation support, marketed to industry and academia for automating hazardous tasks and compatible with existing robot arms.[17] COVVI has also said its prosthetic hand has been used in the rehabilitation of Ukrainian personnel, a claim reported through the company and trade press.[17]

## Limitations

The COVVI Hand shares the constraints common to advanced myoelectric prostheses. Multi-articulated hands of this class are costly and, until the recent NHS funding decision, were largely out of reach for publicly funded patients in England; access still depends on clinical eligibility and on working with an authorised provider. The device relies on the wearer producing usable EMG signals, so it is not suitable for everyone, and learning to switch reliably among two dozen grips takes practice. Although the fingertips contain force sensors used for the hand's own control, the system does not restore a true sense of touch to the user, a limitation of essentially all commercial myoelectric hands. The wrist is a manually positioned flex wrist rather than a continuously powered one, and the IP44 rating means the hand tolerates splashes but cannot be immersed. The COVVI Go app is deliberately clinician-gated, which supports safe fitting but means users cannot freely reconfigure the hand without a clinician's involvement.

## See also

- [Bionic hand](/wiki/bionic_hand)
- [Dexterous hand](/wiki/dexterous_hand)
- [PSYONIC](/wiki/psyonic)
- [Open Bionics](/wiki/open_bionics)
- [Alt-Bionics](/wiki/alt_bionics)
- [Degrees of freedom](/wiki/degrees_of_freedom)
- [Robotics](/wiki/robotics)

## References

1. COVVI Ltd, company website. https://www.covvi.com/
2. "All About The Past, Present And Future Of COVVI." COVVI Ltd. https://www.covvi.com/about/
3. "COVVI LIMITED overview." Companies House (UK). https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/10932714
4. "Designed to be different: Simon Pollard, COVVI." Insider Media, Yorkshire Entrepreneur of the Month. https://www.insidermedia.com/yorkshire/entrepreneur/designed-to-be-different-simon-pollard
5. "Simon Pollard Joins 'Objectiv-X' As The New CEO." COVVI Ltd. https://www.covvi.com/news/simon-pollard-joins-objectiv-x/
6. "COVVI's Technical Specifications: The Key Details." COVVI Ltd. https://www.covvi.com/covvi-hand/product-overview/
7. "COVVI Hand." SPS (Hanger). https://www.spsco.com/covvi-hand-1.html
8. "Key Features And Functionality Of The COVVI Hand." COVVI Ltd. https://www.covvi.com/covvi-hand/
9. "Featured Technology: The Nexus Hand by COVVI." Hanger Clinic Blog. https://hangerclinic.com/blog/featured-technology/covvi-nexus-hand/
10. "Prostheses NEXUS by COVVI." NY Product Design Awards (2022). https://nydesignawards.com/winner-info.php?id=495
11. "COVVI Go." COVVI Ltd. https://www.covvi.com/covvi-go/
12. "COVVI Supplies First Bionic Hand On The NHS." COVVI Ltd. https://www.covvi.com/news/covvi-provides-the-first-multi-articulated-hand-through-the-nhs/
13. "Bionic hand company expands Leeds HQ." TheBusinessDesk.com, 27 October 2022. https://www.thebusinessdesk.com/yorkshire/news/2101275-bionic-hand-company-expands-leeds-hq
14. "Prosthetic hand firm COVVI increases Quayside operations." Med-Tech News. https://www.med-technews.com/news/latest-medtech-news/prosthetic-hand-firm-covvi-increases-quayside-operations/
15. "Robotic hand offers innovative nuclear solution." World Nuclear News, 31 May 2023. https://www.world-nuclear-news.org/Articles/Robotic-hand-offers-innovative-nuclear-solution
16. "Atkins and COVVI to develop robotic bionic hand for nuclear sector." AtkinsRealis (trade release), 30 May 2023. https://www.atkinsrealis.com/en/media/trade-releases/2023/2023-05-30-b
17. "Covvi unveils 'futuristic' robotic hand that 'pushes new technological boundaries'." Robotics and Automation News, 20 January 2025. https://roboticsandautomationnews.com/2025/01/20/covvi-unveils-futuristic-robotic-hand-that-pushes-new-technological-boundaries/88732/