Carbonhand

Overview

Carbonhand is a soft grip-strengthening glove rather than a rigid exoskeleton. Motors in a small power pack pull artificial tendons through a glove that covers the thumb and two fingers, with the wearer choosing whether the middle and ring or the index and middle fingers get help. It is for people who can still start a grasp but lack strength or endurance because of spinal cord injury, ALS, MS, stroke, nerve damage, fractures or rheumatic disease, and it is sold as a CE-marked medical device in Sweden and Germany and since 2024 in the US, where it is prescribed through more than 40 VA medical centers (the 100th veteran was fitted in September 2026) and through an online eligibility questionnaire for everyone else. An updated version in April 2025 added the two finger-wearing positions, on-glove calibration, a one-step arm strap and an adjustable palm sensor. The 0.7 kg system is light, but battery runtime, grip force beyond 20 N per finger and US FDA clearance details are not published (unconfirmed), and the launch year of 2018 is also (unconfirmed). Its industrial twin Ironhand passed to Skelex in June 2024, and the motorized-elbow alternative for weak arms is the MyoPro.