Changsha bets on manufacturing as 37-DOF dexterous hand debuts
On August 7, Zhongke Huisi — a joint venture of Zhongke Huiling, Lens Technology and Huaxia Group — unveiled three dexterous hands at the foot of Yuelu Mountain in Changsha, led by an F-series tendon-driven bionic hand with 37 degrees of freedom that it says can pinch a bottle cap, versus the 21–23 DOF typical of peers. The report frames Xiangjiang New Area's strategy as an "advantageous manufacturing capability transfer" program: Daile New Material turning ultra-fine tungsten wire into bionic tendon cables, Farsoon Technologies metal-3D-printing bionic finger joints in one piece, Lens Technology supplying joint modules and final assembly, and Zoomlion with Zhongke Yungu turning its factories into training grounds with nearly 100 humanoid robots already deployed. It also flags three obstacles: sample validation is not volume production, no ecosystem-leading "chain master" company yet, and a tight window against eastern coastal rivals already years ahead.
As embodied AI shifts from demos to volume production, manufacturing and supply-chain capability — not just algorithms — may decide which regions and firms capture the market.