Teen builds advanced robotic hand from Lego

Jared‘s Lego hand can pick up a variety of objects including fruits like lemons and apples and a plastic cup and bowl

A teenager has designed and built a fully working robotic hand out of Lego pieces.

Jared Lepora, 16, from Bristol, spent about two years on the creation, assisted by his father Nathan who is a professor in robotics at the University of Bristol.

"My dad specialises in making advanced robot hands and I thought these principles were always really cool, so why not make it out of Lego?” Jared said.

Nathan hopes the Lego hand, which can pick up variety of objects including fruits and cups, could one day become a "proper Lego set for other children" to build.

The hand, which is driven by two motors using tendons, has four fingers, each functioning with three joints.

Using Lego clutch gears, the mechanics of the fingers move together until they touch an object then stop moving, similar to a human hand.

After building the hand and jointly writing an academic paper on it with his father, Jared was invited to give a speech at the Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS) 2025 conference in Hangzhou, China, and was the youngest speaker there.

Jared's Lego hand is driven by two motors using tendons and has four fingers

Nathan said he used to take his son into the lab during summer holidays, where he got familiar with 3D-printed designs while chatting with PhD students.

"And he had the idea of making one out of Lego...maybe he'll become my boss someday," he said.

"This genuinely could be of interest to other children to engage with advanced robotics, it's a way in for them.

"If anyone can build the hand, and maybe other children can make design changes, then that's really exciting.

"Wouldn't it be amazing if it could be a proper Lego set for other children, that would be exciting," he added.

Jared met top professors at the conference after giving his speech