Shadow Robot Company Profile: History, Products, Partners and Leadership
Updated: 7 days ago
The Shadow Robot Company is a London company that makes the Shadow Dexterous Hand, a robot hand built to match the movement of a human hand. It began in 1987 as a group of hobbyists in an attic and was incorporated in 1997. This profile sets out its history, products, partners and leadership.
Shadow Robot at a Glance
Fact | Detail |
Company | Shadow Robot Company |
Origin | Shadow Robot Project, begun November 1987 |
Incorporated | 1997 |
Founder | Richard Greenhill |
Location | Islington, London, United Kingdom |
Managing Director | Rich Walker |
Products | Shadow Dexterous Hand and DEX-EE |
Ownership | Independent and privately held, according to a secondary source |
Company History
The company's origin is unusual. Richard Greenhill studied photography and worked in photojournalism and advertising; he was self-taught in robotics and electronics. In November 1987 he gathered twelve people in his attic to build a domestic robot. The group, called the Shadow Robot Project, built a biped robot that won a prize at the First Robot Olympics, worked on air muscles, and made a humanoid hand out of maple modeled on Greenhill's own hand.
The group became a registered company in 1997, when a customer's order for a robot leg made registration necessary. In the same year Honda unveiled its P2 walking robot, and Shadow turned its attention from bipeds to hands. The company is still based in the house in Islington where it started.
A British government case study from 2015 recorded that it had grown from two founders to 21 employees and listed small public grants: about GBP 31,500 in 2011 for a telerobotics study with the National Nuclear Laboratory, and GBP 70,000 and GBP 76,500 in 2013 for work on service robots and on telerobotic control.
Key milestones
November 1987: The Shadow Robot Project begins.
1997: Incorporated as a company.
2005: Shadow Dexterous Hand released commercially, in its pneumatic version.
About 2010: Electric version of the hand introduced.
2014: Chosen for a British robotics mission to California.
2018 and 2019: OpenAI uses the Shadow hand in its dexterity research, including a Rubik's cube demonstration.
January 2025: DEX-EE announced.
May 2025: Funding from the British research agency ARIA for two projects led by Shadow.
The milestones from 2005 onward come from a secondary reference site and are given on that basis.
Products
Product | Description |
Shadow Dexterous Hand | Hand with 24 joints and 20 degrees of freedom, modeled on an adult male hand |
DEX-EE | Three-fingered hand built to withstand machine learning experiments, developed with Google DeepMind |
DEX-EE Chiral | Version with a thumb-like third finger, for teleoperation |
Teleoperation systems | Remote control of the hand, with touch feedback |
The Shadow Dexterous Hand in detail
Feature | Detail |
Joints | 24 |
Degrees of freedom | 20 |
Electric version | 20 motors in the forearm |
Pneumatic version | 20 opposed pairs of air muscles in the forearm |
Position sensing | A sensor in every joint |
Force sensing | Per degree of freedom in the motor hand |
Touch | Optional fingertip sensors |
Software | Built on ROS, with a simulation package |
The range of movement is intended to equal that of a typical human hand, which is why the hand became a standard tool for research into grasping and manipulation.
Partners and Users
Research users: NASA, Bielefeld University, Carnegie Mellon University and European research projects.
AI laboratories: OpenAI used the hand in its dexterity research; Google DeepMind worked with Shadow on DEX-EE.
Teleoperation: Shadow worked with HaptX, Tangible Research and SynTouch on a tactile telerobot that reached the finals of the ANA Avatar XPRIZE.
Industry interest: the 2015 case study mentions talks with companies in pharmaceuticals, logistics, food manufacturing and the car supply chain, and applications in hazardous settings such as nuclear decommissioning.
Leadership
Name | Role |
Rich Walker | Managing Director; joined the project as a teenager |
Richard Greenhill | Founder |
Can You Invest in Shadow Robot?
No. It is privately held, and according to a secondary source it is funded mainly by product sales, research collaborations and public grants, not by large venture rounds.
What Is Not Covered
Sales and the current number of employees are not stated in the primary sources used. A secondary source estimates 20 to 40 employees.
Strengths and Challenges
Strengths
A hand that set the reference in research on dexterous manipulation.
Partnerships with leading AI laboratories.
Long continuity under the same small team.
Challenges
A small company serving mainly research customers.
New competitors making robot hands for humanoid robots at lower prices.
Current Catalogue Coverage
Catalogue checked on 15 October 2026: 1 associated product records. The links below are representative entries, rather than a claim that every historical model is currently available.
Shadow Robot FAQ
What does the Shadow Robot Company make?
Robot hands: the Shadow Dexterous Hand, with 24 joints, and the three-fingered DEX-EE.
Where is the Shadow Robot Company based?
In Islington, London.
When was the Shadow Robot Company founded?
The project began in November 1987, and the company was incorporated in 1997.
Who founded the Shadow Robot Company?
Richard Greenhill, a photographer who taught himself robotics.
Who runs the Shadow Robot Company?
Rich Walker is Managing Director.
Who uses the Shadow Hand?
Research organizations including NASA, Bielefeld University and Carnegie Mellon University, and AI laboratories such as OpenAI and Google DeepMind.
Sources
Shadow Robot: the story of our founder Richard Greenhill
GOV.UK: robotics success story, the hand that thinks for itself
Wikipedia: Shadow Hand
AI Wiki: Shadow Robot Company
