Xynova Flex 1
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May 19, 2026
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Last reviewed
May 19, 2026
Sources
8 citations
Review status
Source-backed
Revision
v1 · 1,526 words
Add missing citations, update stale details, or suggest a clearer explanation.
| Xynova Flex 1 | |
|---|---|
| Product information | |
| Manufacturer | Xynova (Hangzhou, China) |
| Public launch | August 2025 (first generation reveal) |
| Wider English-language coverage | September 9, 2025 RoboHub thread |
| Generation | First |
| Type | Tendon-driven dexterous hand |
| Total degrees of freedom | 25 (20 active + 5 passive) |
| Palm weight | 380 g |
| Fingers | 5 (fully opposable thumb) |
| Fingertip force | More than 20 N per finger |
| Whole-hand lift capacity | More than 30 kg |
| Full open-close cycle time | About 0.6 s |
| Tendon durability | More than 1,000,000 cycles at rated load (Xynova) |
| Successor | Xynova Flex 2 |
The Xynova Flex 1 is the first-generation dexterous hand developed by Hangzhou-based robotics startup Xynova. Publicly unveiled in August 2025 and described in detail by RoboHub on X on September 9, 2025, it was at launch the lightest and highest-lift-capacity high-DOF tendon-driven hand publicly available, with 25 total degrees of freedom (20 active and 5 passive), a 380 g palm weight, more than 20 newtons of fingertip force per finger, and a lifting capacity in excess of 30 kilograms. The Flex 1 was the product that established Xynova's vertical-integration playbook of building motors, controllers, reducers, planetary roller screws, and tendon transmissions in-house. [1][2][3]
The Flex 1 was followed in May 2026 by the Flex 2, which moved to a hybrid cable plus direct-drive architecture and traded raw load capacity for sensing and precision. The two products coexist in Xynova's catalogue, with the Flex 1 positioned for research, teleoperation, and integrators that need the maximum mechanical envelope. [4][5]
The published specification sheet for the Flex 1, drawn from Xynova's own materials and from coverage in TMTPost, Sina Finance, and Gasgoo Auto News, is summarised below. [1][2][6]
| Category | Parameter | Value |
|---|---|---|
| Structure | Total degrees of freedom | 25 |
| Structure | Active DOF | 20 |
| Structure | Passive DOF | 5 |
| Structure | Fingers | 5, fully opposable thumb |
| Structure | Drive architecture | Pure tendon-driven |
| Dimensions | Palm weight | 380 g |
| Dimensions | Form factor | Adult-hand-scale |
| Load | Fingertip force | More than 20 N per finger |
| Load | Whole-hand lift capacity | More than 30 kg |
| Dynamics | Full open-close cycle | About 0.6 s |
| Durability | Tendon durability under rated load | More than 1,000,000 cycles (Xynova internal validation) |
| Components | Hollow cup motor | 8 mm diameter, brushless, finger-scale |
| Components | Planetary roller screw | 7 mm wide |
| Components | Micro electric cylinder | 10 to 12 mm, 100 to 300 N thrust |
| Components | Integrated joint module | 322 Nm per kg torque density |
At launch, the combination of a 380 g palm with a whole-hand lifting capacity of more than 30 kilograms made the Flex 1 the highest published load-to-weight ratio among publicly disclosed high-DOF dexterous hands. The 20 active and 5 passive degrees of freedom configuration is unusual in the field; most competing hands publish only an active DOF count, while the Flex 1 explicitly distinguishes between the joints driven by their own actuators and the joints whose motion is coupled mechanically. [1][2]
The Flex 1 is a pure tendon-driven hand: each active joint is moved by a high-tensile cable that routes through pulleys back into the actuator pack, with the actuators themselves implemented as Xynova's own micro electric cylinders. The cylinders are 10 to 12 mm wide and deliver between 100 and 300 newtons of thrust, built around the company's 7 mm planetary roller screws and 8 mm hollow cup brushless motors. The whole drive chain, from motor lamination through to tendon, is manufactured in-house, which is what allows Xynova to publish a tendon durability figure (more than one million cycles at rated load) significantly higher than the industry's typical 10,000-cycle failure point for tendon hands. [1][2][6]
The Flex 1 also uses Xynova's integrated joint modules, advertised at 322 newton-metres per kilogram of torque density, for higher-load joints in the wrist and base of the thumb. The full-stack control system on the Flex 1 includes a parameter optimisation algorithm with physical constraints, which Xynova describes as enabling adaptive joint control across varying payloads and object shapes without retuning controllers for each task. [1][2]
At launch in 2025, the Flex 1 sat near the top of the field for both DOF count and whole-hand load capacity. [3][7][8]
| Hand | Manufacturer | Year revealed | Active DOF | Total DOF | Palm weight | Whole-hand lift capacity | Drive |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Xynova Flex 1 | Xynova | August 2025 | 20 | 25 | 380 g | More than 30 kg | Tendon |
| Wuji Hand | Wuji Tech | September 2025 | 20 | 20 | 580 g (skeleton) | 10 kg (static) | In-hand direct drive |
| LinkerHand L30 | Linkerbot | 2025 | 22 | 22 | Not published | Not published | Tendon, forearm motors |
| Optimus Gen 3 hand | Tesla | 2025 (announced) | 22 | 22 | Not published | Not published | Tendon, 25 forearm actuators |
| Phoenix hand | Sanctuary AI Phoenix | 2023 | 21 | 21 | Not published | Not published | Pneumatic and hydraulic |
| Shadow Hand (research) | Shadow Robot | 2005 | 24 | 24 | About 4 kg with forearm | Not published | Tendon, forearm pneumatics or motors |
The direct comparison most often drawn at the time of the Flex 1 launch was with the Wuji Hand, which was revealed roughly one month later. The two products are both five-finger, 20-active-DOF hands targeting humanoid integration, but they differ sharply on drive architecture. The Wuji Hand puts every actuator inside the hand itself, with each finger acting as a self-contained direct-drive robot. The Flex 1 keeps the actuator pack in the forearm or chassis behind the hand and uses cables to drive the fingers. The trade-off is the same one that runs through the wider dexterous hand market: direct drive is simpler to simulate and field-repair, while tendon drive allows lighter and more biomimetic fingers and concentrates the heavier actuators in a more central location. [2][7]
Xynova was founded at the end of 2024, and the Flex 1 was the first product the company shipped after roughly nine months of operation. The hand was publicly revealed in August 2025 and received broader English-language coverage when the RoboHub account on X published a thread on September 9, 2025, summarising the spec sheet and emphasising the 380 g palm weight and the tendon-driven architecture with 20 active and 5 passive degrees of freedom. [3][6]
The Flex 1 was the underlying product cited in the December 2025 angel funding announcement, in which Xynova raised more than 100 million yuan (about 13.7 million US dollars) in a round led by CATL Capital with co-investment from Xiaomi Strategic Investment, Zhengxuan Investment, Orient Renaissance Capital, SEARI Capital, and the L2F Ray Entrepreneur Fund. By the March 2026 Pre-A round, Xynova had publicly stated that it held orders for more than 10,000 high-DOF dexterous hands from leading humanoid manufacturers, with the Flex 1 as the primary commercial product. [1][6][8]
The Flex 1 was not without unanswered questions. Independent coverage at the time, in particular the Gasgoo industry surveys, noted that pricing, customer identities, and independent third-party benchmarks were not publicly available, and that the published one-million-cycle tendon durability figure came entirely from Xynova's internal validation rather than from outside testing. The Flex 2 launch in May 2026 partially addressed these gaps with more precise repeatability and force control numbers, but did so by changing the drive architecture and reducing the grasp load. [5][7][8]