Suction Leap-Hand: Suction Cups on a Multi-fingered Hand Enable Embodied Dexterity and In-Hand Teleoperation

Abstract:

Dexterous in-hand manipulation remains a foundational challenge in robotics, with progress often constrained by the prevailing paradigm of imitating the human hand. This anthropomorphic approach creates two critical barriers: 1. it limits robotic capabilities to tasks humans can already perform, and 2. it makes data collection for learning-based methods exceedingly difficult. Both challenges are caused by traditional force-closure which requires coordinating complex, multi-point contacts based on friction, normal force, and gravity to grasp an object. This makes teleoperated demonstrations unstable and amplifies the sim-to-real gap for reinforcement learning. In this work, we propose a paradigm shift: moving away from replicating human mechanics toward the design of novel robotic embodiments. We introduce the \textbf{S}uction \textbf{Leap}-Hand (SLeap Hand), a multi-fingered hand featuring integrated fingertip suction cups that realize a new form of suction-enabled dexterity. By replacing complex force-closure grasps with stable, single-point adhesion, our design fundamentally simplifies in-hand teleoperation and facilitates the collection of high-quality demonstration data. More importantly, this suction-based embodiment unlocks a new class of dexterous skills that are difficult or even impossible for the human hand, such as one-handed paper cutting and in-hand writing. Our work demonstrates that by moving beyond anthropomorphic constraints, novel embodiments can not only lower the barrier for collecting robust manipulation data but also enable the stable, single-handed completion of tasks that would typically require two human hands. Our webpage is this https URL.

See the paper webpage: https://sites.google.com/view/sleaphand

Recommended citation: Zhaole Sun, Xiaofeng Mao, Jihong Zhu, Yuanlong Zhang, and Robert B. Fisher. "Suction Leap-Hand: Suction Cups on a Multi-fingered Hand Enable Embodied Dexterity and In-Hand Teleoperation." arXiv preprint arXiv:2509.20646 (2025). https://arxiv.org/abs/2509.20646