Hand record · Not confirmed
ORCA Hand
A partly documented open-source hand that appears in in-hand reorientation work. The record is deliberately incomplete: six fields have no attributable source.
- Actuated DOF
- 17tendon and joint hybrid
- Mass
- ~800 g
- Price observed
- Not published
- Evidence tier
- D
This is the shortest record in the index, and the gaps are the point. The ORCA Hand circulates in in-hand manipulation research as an open design with tendon-driven fingers and integrated fingertip sensing, and it is often mentioned alongside the LEAP Hand as a low-cost alternative. What we could not establish from public sources is who maintains it, what it costs assembled, and how durable it is.
Rather than describe a hand we cannot source, this page lists what is known and marks the rest unverified. A database that hides missing fields looks complete and is worse than one that shows them.
What is established
- 17 actuated degrees of freedom, described as a tendon and joint hybrid.
- Mass of roughly 800 g in the configuration most often cited.
- Integrated fingertip tactile sensing, which the LEAP Hand does not have.
- A Python SDK, and a design target of in-hand reorientation rather than pick-and-place.
What is not
Fingertip force, payload, cycle durability, ROS 2 support and lead time are all unconfirmed. Price is unconfirmed. The maintaining institution is unconfirmed: several secondary sources imply a European university lab, and we have not found a primary page that states it. Anyone quoting a price for this hand should say where the number came from.
How to use this record
Treat it as a watch-list entry. If you are specifying a hand for a funded project, the LEAP Hand has a price and a paper trail and this one does not. If you have built an ORCA Hand and can document the cost, the enquiry form is the fastest way to correct this page, and corrections are logged with a date.
Specification
The right-hand column records where each field comes from: vendor documentation, a dealer page, or a conflict between sources. Fields marked unverified have no attributable public value.
Price observations
| Item | Channel | Price | Date | Includes | Tier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ORCA Hand | No public listing | Not published | 2026-11-05 | No attributable price found | D |
Tier A: documented list price. B: sources disagree by more than 15%. C: estimate or press figure. D: quote only. See methodology.
What is not verified
- Maintaining institution not confirmed from a primary page.
- No price, lead time or support terms.
- No published force, payload or durability figures.
Questions buyers ask
Can I buy an ORCA Hand?
We found no public sales channel, price or lead time. It appears to be an open design that labs build or commission, which is why the price field is empty rather than estimated.
Is it better than a LEAP Hand?
There is no basis for that comparison here. It has fingertip sensing and one more degree of freedom; it also has no published price, force figure or durability data.
Why is this page so short?
Because six fields could not be attributed. Publishing a full-looking record would require inventing them.
Sources
- Secondary research summaries. DOF, mass and sensing description. 2026
Record log
- Record created with six fields left explicitly empty.