Brainco Revo 2 Touch Biomimetic Dexterous Right Hand (XTR)

Most failures in robotic manipulation are not failures of reach. The arm arrives, the camera confirms the position, and then the hand has to do something that software alone cannot settle: close on an object with the right firmness, at the right moment. The Brainco Revo 2 Touch Biomimetic Dexterous Right Hand (XTR) is a bionic hand for robot integration and research, and it is the touch-oriented version of the Revo 2 family, made for teams that treat contact as a problem worth studying.

The product is available through this page, by quotation.

Background

The company and its lineage

BrainCo was founded in 2015 and was incubated by the Harvard Innovation Lab (i-Lab), according to the published company background. Its work in bionic hands gives the Revo 2 a lineage that matters to buyers: this is a product of a company that builds hands as its principal business, not a gripper added to a catalogue as an afterthought. Within this store's range, the earlier BrainCo Revo 1 Intelligent Dexterous Bionic Hand represents the previous generation, while the Revo 2 family is organised into three versions: Basic (XRL/XRR), Pro (XEL/XER) and Touch (XTL/XTR).

The naming follows a simple convention. The final letter identifies the side, so XTR is the right-hand model of the Touch version and XTL is its left-hand counterpart. Teams building a bimanual platform will usually need both, and the left-hand model is available on the page for the Brainco Revo 2 Touch Biomimetic Dexterous Left Hand (XTL).

Positioning and key technology

The Revo 2 is described in its published material as a bionic dexterous hand for robot integration and research. It has 6 active joints and a total of 11 degrees of freedom, a figure reported by a single published source. In practical terms, this means a hand that is meant to be programmed to form distinct grasps and gestures, rather than one that simply opens and closes.

Control is closed-loop servo control, and the device allows custom gesture definitions, so a laboratory can encode the postures that its own experiments require. The hand also carries protections for current, stall, high temperature and collision conditions. For a research group, such protections are not a luxury: a hand that is commanded into an obstruction during development should defend itself rather than become a repair item.

Connectivity is deliberately broad. The hand supports RS485, CAN FD and EtherCAT communication interfaces, and SDK support is provided for Linux, Windows and ROS workflows. That combination lets the same hand sit on a bench with a laptop or inside a humanoid with an industrial fieldbus.

Technical Specifications

Specifications as published by a single source; they are to be confirmed against the datasheet at quotation, and the items marked as not published are likewise confirmed at quotation.

What makes the Touch version different from Basic and Pro?

The three versions share the same family and the same published control and communication description. The one figure the sources set side by side is the supply voltage: the Basic version is listed at 12-28V, while the Pro and Touch versions are both listed at 12-64V. A team that plans to run the hand from a wider supply range therefore has no reason to choose Basic on that count alone, and should note the difference before designing a power distribution board.

The Touch designation points to the tactile capability of this version, which is the reason a research group would select it over the others. The available sources do not, however, publish the tactile sensor resolution, so we cannot state how finely the hand resolves contact. That detail is confirmed at quotation, and a buyer whose experiment depends on it should ask for it before committing.

For comparison, the right-hand models of the other versions are the BrainCo Revo 2 Basic Right Dexterous Bionic Hand (XRR) and the BrainCo Revo 2 Pro Dexterous Right Hand (XER). Every figure in this article belongs to the Touch version, and none should be transferred to a sibling without checking its own datasheet.

How is the hand connected and commanded?

Integration is where a dexterous hand either earns its place or loses weeks of engineering time. The Revo 2 offers three communication routes. RS485 suits simple serial setups and bench work. CAN FD is familiar to teams building mobile platforms and humanoids with a distributed bus. EtherCAT serves those who need deterministic industrial networking. Having all three in one hand means the choice can follow the host system rather than the other way round.

On the software side, SDK support for Linux, Windows and ROS workflows covers the environments in which most robotics laboratories actually work. The default device ID matters when two hands share a bus: for the Revo 2, the default ID of the left hand is 126 and that of the right hand is 127. As this is the right-hand model, the default is 127, which avoids a clash when both hands are connected, although the IDs can be confirmed at commissioning.

The control precision is published as 0.1° and the pinch force as ≥15N. Both figures come from a single source and are not tied there to a specific version, so they should be confirmed against the datasheet for the XTR before they are used as design inputs.

Who is the Brainco Revo 2 Touch Right Hand for?

The first segment is university and institute laboratories studying grasping, in-hand manipulation and learning-based control. They need a hand whose interfaces and SDK fit existing tooling, and whose protections tolerate the inevitable collisions of early experiments. The second segment is humanoid developers who need a hand with a fieldbus their platform already uses. The third is industrial research and development groups evaluating dexterous manipulation for tasks that parallel grippers cannot handle.

Buyers whose work does not depend on tactile feedback may find that a sibling version is enough. The Basic right-hand model or the Pro right-hand model suits those who want the family's mechanics without the touch-oriented version. Those building a two-handed system should pair this hand with its left-hand counterpart. Buyers browsing wider options can also look at the Hands category or the Research Robots category.

What is the Brainco Revo 2 Touch Right Hand used for?

1. Humanoid robot integration: giving a humanoid's right arm a hand capable of varied grasps and gestures.
2. Manipulation research: testing grasp planning and in-hand manipulation strategies on a real multi-joint hand.
3. Tactile and haptics studies: examining how contact information can inform grasping, within the limits of the unpublished sensor details.
4. Learning-based control: collecting data and running policies on a hand that is accessible through ROS, Linux and Windows software.
5. Industrial development: prototyping handling tasks over RS485, CAN FD or EtherCAT before a production design is fixed.
6. Teaching and demonstration: showing students and visitors how closed-loop servo control and custom gestures work in practice.

Pricing and Availability

No price is printed here. The Brainco Revo 2 Touch Biomimetic Dexterous Right Hand (XTR) is supplied by quotation, so that the version, the side and the quantity can be confirmed against your project. Delivery, customs and support are arranged together with the quotation. To begin, request a quotation, and the product is available on this page.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this the right-hand or left-hand model?

It is the right-hand model of the Touch version, coded XTR. The left-hand model is coded XTL and has its own page.

How many joints and degrees of freedom does it have?

It has 6 active joints and 11 degrees of freedom, as reported by a single published source.

Which communication interfaces does it support?

It supports RS485, CAN FD and EtherCAT. SDK support is provided for Linux, Windows and ROS workflows, per the published specification.

What protections does the hand include?

The hand includes protections for current, stall, high temperature and collision conditions, together with closed-loop servo control and custom gesture definitions.

What is the supply voltage?

The Touch version is listed at 12-64V, whereas the Basic version is listed at 12-28V. Confirm this against the datasheet at quotation.

What are the ingress protection rating and tactile sensor resolution?

The manufacturer has not published either figure, nor the operating temperature for the Touch version or the contents of the box. They are confirmed at quotation.

Where can I buy the Brainco Revo 2 Touch Right Hand and what does it cost?

It can be bought through this page, by quotation. No price is shown here; the cost is provided in the quotation once your requirements are confirmed.

Summary

Reaching an object is the easy part of manipulation; holding it intelligently is the hard part. The Brainco Revo 2 Touch Right Hand answers that with 11 degrees of freedom across 6 active joints, closed-loop servo control, built-in protections, three communication interfaces and SDK support for Linux, Windows and ROS. Its tactile orientation is what sets it apart within the family, while the unpublished details, such as sensor resolution and ingress protection, are to be settled at quotation. For a team that wants a right hand that can feel as well as move, this page is the starting point.