ABB Robotics and PSYONIC Use Human-Generated Data to Advance Robotic Dexterity

By combining PSYONIC’s Ability Hand with ABB’s GoFa™ cobot, the companies aim to use touch and motion data from prosthetic use to train robots. This helps robots perform delicate and variable tasks that have traditionally been difficult to automate.

Grasping and dexterity are central to ABB Robotics’ vision of Autonomous Versatile Robotics (AVR™), where robots can sense, reason, move, and handle objects with precision in dynamic environments.

These capabilities are also key to advancing physical AI in industry, where robotic systems learn from real-world interactions and apply that intelligence with industrial-grade reliability.

The collaboration will explore applications across industries such as automotive, aerospace packaging and logistics and life sciences. By enabling robots to handle repetitive, difficult or ergonomically challenging tasks, ABB Robotics and PSYONIC aim to improve collaboration between humans and robots while enhancing productivity, flexibility and workplace safety.

PSYONIC is working closely with ABB Robotics’ R&D team to integrate and develop touch-enabled manipulation for next-generation autonomous robotics applications.

Originally designed for prosthetic use, the PSYONIC Ability Hand combines myoelectric control, touch sensing, and flexible mechanics in a lightweight, multi-articulating design. Its pressure sensors and vibration feedback allow users to feel contact, grip force, and release, while its flexible fingers adapt to irregular and deformable objects.

ABB Robotics GoFa™ provides the accuracy and repeatability needed for industrial deployment, ensuring that small variations in grip force, finger positioning and movement can be consistently executed and tested. This precision is essential for turning human derived manipulation data into reliable robotic performance across complex tasks.

The collaboration will explore applications in industrial use cases where traditional gripping systems struggle with variability, fragility or complexity such as handling irregular or delicate objects. According to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR), advanced gripping, and digital integration can reduce engineering time by up to 30%, highlighting the importance of end of arm tooling in improving automation speed and ROI.

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It also reflects ABB Robotics broader strategy of working with partners across its ecosystem to address long standing challenges in automation. By combining robotics, AI, and real world manipulation data from human prosthetic use, ABB Robotics is advancing physical AI, and enabling more capable, adaptable robots to operate reliably in real world environments.

“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,” said Marc Segura, President, ABB Robotics. “As we develop the next generation physical AI, robots will learn and understand the world as we do. 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.”

“Dexterous manipulation is ultimately a data challenge as much as a hardware challenge,” said Dr. Aadeel Akhtar, Founder and CEO of PSYONIC. “By using the same Ability Hand on people and on robots, we can capture high-fidelity real-world data on movement, contact and grip force, then use that to train robotic systems more effectively. Integrating with ABB Robotics’ robotics platform allows us to expand into more environments and unlock the level of dexterity needed to take on the hardest challenges in automation.”

About ABB Robotics

ABB Robotics is one of the world’s leading robotics companies. It is the only company with a fully integrated AI-powered portfolio that includes robots, cobots, and Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), all coordinated by its software. The company helps businesses across industries such as automotive, electronics, and logistics improve performance by becoming more resilient, flexible, and efficient.

About PSYONIC

Founded in 2015 by Aadeel Akhtar and based in San Diego, PSYONIC develops advanced bionic systems for both humans and robots. The company creates technologies that combine speed, strength, durability and sensory feedback while supporting research in robotics, brain computer interfaces and AI. Its flagship product, the PSYONIC Ability Hand, is the fastest dexterous bionic hand on the market and the first to provide touch feedback.

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