The Shadow Dexterous Hand Extra Lite (DHEL) is a compact, three-digit robotic hand—two fingers plus a thumb—designed to reduce size, weight, and mechanical complexity compared with full five-finger anthropomorphic hands while retaining the manipulation capability needed for grasp research, tactile sensing experiments, and repetitive lab evaluation. Its two-finger-plus-thumb geometry supports stable pinch, tripod, and power grasps over common laboratory objects including cylinders, boxes, tools, and household items, providing a strong tradeoff between dexterity and control simplicity.

The DHEL is driven by 10 DC motors actuating 12 joints through tendon routing, with 10 degrees of freedom. The sensor suite includes three tactile sensors, fingertip force/torque sensing, and an inertial measurement unit, providing the feedback channels required for contact-rich tasks such as slip detection, gentle grasping, and learning from demonstration. An EtherCAT fieldbus interface at 100 Mbps and ROS compatibility make it straightforward to integrate with standard robotics arm platforms and academic software stacks. At approximately 2.1 kg, the DHEL is well-suited to payload-limited robot arms and lab setups where reducing end-effector mass is important.