# PSYONIC

Canonical page: https://technooptimist.io/companies/psyonic
PSYONIC is a San Diego company that builds the Ability Hand, a fast, impact-tolerant bionic hand that gives amputees touch feedback. The same hand is now sold to robotics labs, so data from human users can teach robots to grasp.

## In brief

- Born from a 3D-printed hand Aadeel Akhtar fitted in Ecuador in 2014 as a University of Illinois grad student.
- Ability Hand is reimbursable by Medicare, which the company says widens access from about 10% to 75% of users.
- 2026: the hand became a native asset in NVIDIA Isaac Lab (March) and was paired with ABB's GoFa cobot (June).

## Facts

- Founded: 2015
- Headquarters: US
- Status: private
- Website: https://www.psyonic.io
- Frontiers: [Neurotech](https://technooptimist.io/neurotech.md) (Bionic limbs & muscle control), [Robotics](https://technooptimist.io/robotics.md)

## Programs

- [Ability Hand](https://technooptimist.io/neurotech/ability-hand.md) (Neurotech): Deploy; next: Reach >99% operational reliability for robot use. Fitted to about 300 amputees and sold to robot labs; ABB and NVIDIA tie-ups in 2026

## Technical approach

- **Muscle control: Myoelectric control from the residual limb**: Skin electrodes in the socket pick up muscle signals in the forearm stump; the user's intent to open, close or switch grip drives the motors.
- **Touch back: Fingertip pressure turned into vibration**: Pressure sensors in the fingers measure grip force and buzz the user's arm, so they can hold an egg or a cup without watching the hand.
- **Compliant build: Fingers that bend instead of breaking**: Each finger is built to take blunt impacts without breaking, so knocks and drops in daily life do not end in a repair.

## Open problems

- **Few control signals for many grips** (active research): Two or three muscle sites must select among dozens of grips; users switch modes with learned muscle patterns, which is slow and tiring.
- **Robot-grade reliability** (active research): Robot customers run hands for many hours a day; the founder targets over 99% operational reliability, a higher bar than prosthetic use.

## Latest updates

- **16 Jun 2026**: ABB Robotics and PSYONIC pair the Ability Hand with the GoFa cobot to train robots on human grasping data. ABB Robotics is working with PSYONIC to study how touch and motion data from people using the Ability Hand can teach robots delicate, variable tasks that are hard to automate. ([our story](https://technooptimist.io/stories/abb-robotics-and-psyonic-pair-the-ability-hand-with-the-gofa-cobot-to-ff534635.md) · [original source](https://www.cityam.com/abb-robotics-and-psyonic-use-human-generated-data-to-advance-robotic-dexterity/))
- **17 Mar 2026**: PSYONIC's Ability Hand becomes a native asset in NVIDIA Isaac Lab for robot learning. At NVIDIA GTC, PSYONIC and NVIDIA announced that the Ability Hand is now built into Isaac Lab, so researchers can simulate, train and test AI grasping policies on it. ([our story](https://technooptimist.io/stories/psyonic-s-ability-hand-becomes-a-native-asset-in-nvidia-isaac-lab-for-12041c32.md) · [original source](https://www.humanoidsdaily.com/news/from-prosthetics-to-pixels-psyonic-and-nvidia-bridge-the-robotics-data-gap-with-real-to-real-transfer))
- **2 Sep 2021**: PSYONIC releases the Ability Hand, a bionic hand with multi-touch sensory feedback. PSYONIC launched the Ability Hand, a bionic hand that gives users touch feedback and closes in 200 milliseconds. ([our story](https://technooptimist.io/stories/psyonic-releases-the-ability-hand-a-bionic-hand-with-multi-touch-688bc41c.md) · [original source](https://rehabpub.com/orthotics-prosthetics/prosthetics/psyonic-launches-the-ability-hand-a-bionic-hand-you-can-arm-wrestle-with/))

## Partners, customers and investors

- ABB Robotics (partner): Pairs the Ability Hand with ABB's GoFa cobot to train robots on human prosthetic grasping data (June 2026).
- NVIDIA (partner): Ability Hand integrated into the Isaac Lab robot-learning framework, announced at GTC March 2026.
- National Science Foundation (investor): Over $1.3M in NSF grants with Akhtar as principal investigator.

## People

- Aadeel Akhtar, Founder and CEO

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