Sony robotic hand patent points to continuing humanoid research

Sony has filed a US patent application for a robotic hand with a human-like opposable thumb. It is another indication that the electronics group continues researching humanoid and embodied robots.

Application US 2026/0225261 A1 was published by the US Patent and Trademark Office on August 6. It describes a robotic hand reproducing some of the movements that make the human thumb so important for object manipulation.

Robotics & Automation News highlighted the application following an analysis by patent analyst Patentlyze. Although the patent focuses on the hand mechanism, its drawings show much more than an isolated hand. One depicts two views of a complete robot: a head, torso, two articulated arms and a wheeled mobile base.

There is currently no indication that Sony intends to commercialize the robot shown, and patent illustrations should not be read as a product announcement. The application is nevertheless particularly interesting given Sony's long and sometimes underappreciated robotics history.

The thumb is central

The patent addresses one of manipulation's hardest mechanical problems: reproducing the human thumb's unusual range of motion. Patentlyze describes Sony's approach as a design dividing movement among three separate rotation points. Two shafts allow the phalanx to bend, while a third provides the lateral movement that lets the thumb cross the palm and oppose the other fingers.

Patentlyze notes that, when the hand is fully open, all three axes lie in one plane, giving the mechanism a clearly defined neutral position. It describes the third joint as follows: "This specialized joint controls how the robotic thumb rotates and opposes the rest of the hand."

This may seem a small detail, but it matters. Many robotic grippers excel at repetitive industrial tasks yet lack a human hand's adaptability, which can instantly switch between pinching small objects, holding tools and wrapping around irregular shapes. A mechanically capable opposable thumb could find uses well beyond humanoids, including service robots, remotely operated machines and other systems handling tools and objects designed for people.

Sony has been here before

For those who remember early humanoid robotics, a Sony patent depicting a human-like machine may seem vaguely familiar. More than two decades ago, Sony developed QRIO, a small bipedal humanoid initially known as the Sony Dream Robot. QRIO could walk, dance, interact with people and recognize voices and faces. In 2003, Sony showed an improved version capable of running and jumping, which it then called the world's first running autonomous humanoid with onboard control and power systems.

QRIO development ended in the mid-2000s during a wider restructuring of Sony's robotics business. The company says it has no plans to bring the robot itself back. Its robotics research, however, never disappeared completely. Sony says AI and robotics R&D continued through successive reorganizations even after it withdrew from the robotics business.

The company later returned to commercial robotics with a new generation of Aibo and continued researching locomotion, manipulation, autonomous machines and AI. More recently, Sony researchers studied autonomous mobile robots combining wheels and walking, while Sony Interactive Entertainment specialists worked on teaching bipedal movement using human motion data. Last month, Sony joined Honda, SoftBank, NEC and other Japanese organizations in a project to develop a multimodal foundation model for AI-enabled robots and physical AI.

Hands become a new competitive focus

This wider context makes the timing of Sony's hand patent revealing. Humanoid robotics has advanced considerably since QRIO and Honda's ASIMO. Keeping a robot upright and making it walk convincingly is no longer the defining technical achievement it once was. Attention is increasingly shifting to manipulation: what useful work robots can perform after reaching their destination.

That requires hands able to hold thousands of objects with different sizes, weights, shapes and surface textures reliably. Patentlyze believes Sony's patent addresses the challenge mechanically rather than trying to solve everything through AI and software. It calls it "a focused mechanical engineering patent rather than a flashy artificial intelligence filing."

Whether the mechanism will appear in a real Sony robot remains unknown. Companies routinely patent technologies that never reach commercial products. The drawings offer no evidence that Sony is preparing a new QRIO successor.

Even so, as major technology and automotive companies again invest heavily in humanoids and physical AI, this application shows Sony is still considering one of the field's most difficult problems.

Twenty years have passed since QRIO left the stage. Whether Sony will produce another humanoid remains open. Its engineers, however, appear never to have stopped thinking about how robots should move, right down to the thumb.