Testing NEO’s Hands

I joined 1X right as the company went all in on its advanced tendon drive hand. My initial focus was the tactile system, specifically shear forces on the fingertips.

Courtesy of 1X

As parts for the latest design started arriving, I switched to durability testing the fingers and ropes. Quick turnaround on results meant that we solved many issues before scaling production. With finger cycler counts reaching the millions, I moved to stress-testing the actuators and measuring tension in the system.

Courtesy of 1X

To test the tactile sensors in the hand, I designed a controlled environment, where a finger could be probed by a force/torque sensor with modular end effectors. Using data from this system, I trained models of the tactile sensors to predict how they would behave in uncontrolled environments.