Make a hand experiment reproducible
A useful result describes what another person must repeat, including the failures.
Produce a test record another person can challenge and repeat.
Decide the question before the trial
Choose one manipulation task, starting conditions and success rule. Report all attempts and explain excluded trials. Keep objects, controller, intervention policy and timing boundaries consistent when comparing systems.
Describe the complete system
Record the hand revision, external actuation, sensors, firmware, code commit, dependencies and configuration. For a build, include editable design files and the bill of materials where you have permission. Hardware, software and data may have separate licenses.
Use the right reference
NIST manipulation research and YCB protocols offer starting points for task design. RobotPerf measures robotics computing performance; its latency results do not rank hand dexterity. A draft standards work item is not an adopted standard.
Publish enough to challenge the claim
Use the experiment template to record the procedure, successes, failures, resets, human assistance, logs and limitations. Link permitted artifacts to their original repository. A video can illustrate the result; it does not replace the procedure or trial record.
Try it yourself
EVIDENCE LAB · invented teaching data
The denominator changes the story.
Assisted successes are a subset of all successes here. “Unassisted” alone does not establish autonomy: the control mode and intervention policy still need to be documented. These counts describe a sample, not a guaranteed future success rate.
Your practical task
- Choose one task, object and starting condition.
- Define success, failed attempts and allowed interventions before testing.
- Open the experiment template and record all outcomes and missing evidence.
What to produce: A completed experiment template, with unknowns explicitly marked.
Check your understanding
Original sources & next steps
NIST: manipulation measurement research ↗YCB benchmarking project ↗OSHWA open hardware definition ↗Original Dexhands teaching material. Interactive models and added references reviewed September 23, 2026; the introductory reading retains its September 22 review. Research links are not endorsements or evidence of hardware compatibility.