Auto-assembled, not yet reviewed

ORCA Hand

Open-source 17-DoF tendon-driven anthropomorphic hand from ETH Zurich, now published by ORCA Dexterity.

Reproducibility73/100Partial source coverage, unverifiedCADBOMWIREFWBUILDLICREPHow it is computed
ORCA Hand open-source 17-DoF robot hand, 3D render from orcahand_right.urdf
main assembly 3D · orcahand_right.urdf

About ORCA Hand

The ORCA Hand is an open-source, reliable, anthropomorphic 17-DoF tendon-driven robotic hand developed by the Soft Robotics Lab at ETH Zurich (arXiv 2504.04259). It has 16 finger degrees of freedom plus 1 wrist DoF, is largely 3D-printed, and the paper reports that it can be assembled by one person in under eight hours with an approximate material BOM of about $2k / less than 2,000 CHF. The hardware repo (orcahand_hardware, CC BY 4.0) holds print files for the current v2.1 design, orcahand.com publishes an itemized BOM, and the description repo linked here holds the MJCF/URDF models. The paper version with fingertip tactile sensors is no longer produced.

Licenses

Hardware
CC-BY-4.0
Software
MIT
Docs
Not published

Degrees of freedom

17 DoF thumb 4wrist 1fingers 12

Breakdown source

Dexterous handTendon-drivenWristsource

How to build ORCA Hand

5 steps

Steps marked Motari summary condense the linked source; follow the source for exact instructions. Upstream step marks a step taken from the linked guide.

  1. Print the structural parts

    Print the parts from orcahand_hardware, which holds print plates for both the Dynamixel and Feetech versions; print the forearm and wrist parts for your servos. Cast the silicone skins from the provided molds.

    Motari summaryyoutube.com/watch

  2. Source the BOM

    Source parts from the itemized BOM at orcahand.com/bill-of-materials, which lists the common parts plus either a Dynamixel or a Feetech motor set.

    Upstream steporcahand.com/bill-of-materials

  3. Route the tendons

    Assemble the tendon-driven fingers and route the drive cables to the actuator tower following the orcahand.com assembly guide.

    Motari summaryyoutube.com/watch

  4. Wire electronics

    Daisy-chain the 17 servos to the U2D2 (Dynamixel) or FE-URT-2 (Feetech) board, connect the 12V adapter, and check that the orca_core configuration matches your hardware.

    Motari summaryyoutube.com/watch

  5. Simulate and calibrate

    Load the URDF/MJCF into MuJoCo (python -m mujoco.viewer --mjcf scene_combined.xml) to verify the model, then calibrate the assembled hand.

    Motari summaryyoutube.com/watch
Print timenot published
Assembly time8 h

Wiring, power and firmware are safety-relevant and shown for reference only. Check them against the source before building.

ORCA Hand bill of materials

4 rows

Cost to build

$2,431.19USDsource total
  • ORCA v1 legacy Dynamixel BOM incl. 210 USD shipping; v1 is no longer produced$2,431.19source total
  • the same BOM before shipping$2,221.19source total

In the source currency, as read on 2026-09-30. Not converted, and not checked against current vendor prices: none of these is a Motari-verified checkout total.

ORCA Hand parts, as the source lists them. Prices are the source's, not checked against vendors.

ORCA Hand bill of materials
PartQtySpecSourceConfidence
ORCA motor set (Dynamixel version)17 motors; the orcahand.com BOM lists both motor sets
1716 x DYNAMIXEL XC330-T288-T plus 1 x XC430-T240BB-T; a Feetech set (16 x HL-2915, 1 x HL-3930) is the alternative
ORCA Hand source configsee the orcahand.com bill of materialsORCA paper reports 17-DoF hand and approximate $2k BOM; orca_core v2 config lists motor IDs 1-17
high
3D-printed structural hand parts setforearm, tower, carpals, palm and finger assemblies from the official v2 URDF/STL source
1official v2 URDF references right-hand STL meshes for forearm/tower/carpals/palm/fingers
3D print yourself from the project's official filesincluded in paper-level approximate $2k BOM; not separately itemized in public sourcesOfficial orcahand_description v2 URDF/STL visual source and paper statement that the hand is largely 3D-printed
high
Fingertip tactile sensing subsystemPaper (v1) fingertip sensing; the current v2.1 base has no tactile sensing and the v2.0 touch variant uses different sensors
5RP-C7.6-ST thin-film FSRs, five fingertip channels, 10k voltage divider, Arduino Nano Every
FSR / Arduino ecosystemincluded in paper-level approximate $2k BOM; current itemized price not publicORCA paper tactile-sensing section documents the sensor part, five fingertips, voltage divider and Arduino Nano Every
high
Tendon and routing hardware settendon-driven transmission and tactile wiring/routing support
1tendon-driven actuation, PTFE tubing used for tactile sensor wire/routing protection
mixed commodity hardwareincluded in paper-level approximate $2k BOM; current itemized price not publicORCA paper describes the tendon-driven design and tactile wire routing through PTFE tubes
med

Rows from the source's own parts list 3

ORCA_IROS_2025.pdfpdf

Source rowQtyPrice and vendorLine
ORCA Hand approximate material BOM
17-DoF hand
ETH Zurich Soft Robotics Lab / ORCA HandBOM of $2k / less than 2,000 CHF
L16
ORCA fingertip tactile sensing subsystem
five fingertip tactile channels
ORCA Hand / Arduino ecosystemno price listed
L311

orca_core/models/v2/orcahand_right/config.yaml@2ea42cfyaml

Source rowQtyPrice and vendorLine
ORCA 17-actuator motor chain
17 motor IDs
ORCA Hand source configno price listed
L6

ORCA Hand source files

12 files

Files stay in the upstream repository under their own licenses; these links open them there. The 3D model on this page is Motari's conversion of the file named under Simulation.

ORCA Hand in simulation

Robot description files a simulator or CAD tool can load, linked at the commit they were found.

The 3D specimen on this page is converted from v2/models/urdf/orcahand_right.urdf at 9fa90c1.

Builds of ORCA Hand

0 reviewed

No reviewed builds of ORCA Hand yet.

A build log records the evidence (photos, a video, your repository), what the build cost, how long it took and what you changed. Each one is checked by Motari (until a maintainer claims this page) before it shows here, and reviewed builds count toward the reproducibility score.

Sources and provenance

Sources

Last push to orcahand/orcahand_description: 2026-07-31 (checked 2026-10-01)

Related links

How this page was made

Assembled from public sources on 2026-06-07, not yet reviewed by the maintainer. Each figure links to where it is stated; a value the sources do not state reads "not published". Last source review: official ORCA paper + source config 2026-06-07.

Original files stay intact and separately licensed; Motari adds only the summary on this page. Maintainer? Request a correction or removal.

Badge for the README

Maintain ORCA Hand? Show its reproducibility score in the project's README. The badge links back to this page and updates with the score.

Badge: reproducibility 73/100

Markdown
[![Motari reproducibility score for ORCA Hand](https://motari.io/api/v1/badge/orca-hand)](https://motari.io/r/orca-hand)
HTML
<a href="https://motari.io/r/orca-hand"><img src="https://motari.io/api/v1/badge/orca-hand" alt="Motari reproducibility score for ORCA Hand" height="20"></a>

Not fully met yet: bom evidence (partial), wiring diagram (partial). The score is read from the project's own sources, so publishing what is missing is what raises it. A score of 90 or more needs a reviewed build. How the score is computed