Recently, Qiyuan Robotics officially released PrimeUMI — the industry’s first UMI data collection device with built-in six-axis force sensing, supporting fine force-control operations and handling wiping and twisting tasks with ease. A single UMI bimanual collection device embeds two FocusOneMicro MEMS miniature six-axis force sensors in each of its gripper tips — left and right.

Qiyuan Robotics is a consumer-grade humanoid robot brand under Swancor Advanced Materials and a partner of FocusOneMicro. In the demo video, Qiyuan’s UMI collection device performs a table-wiping motion, with force/torque in all six directions output in real time — precise and efficient data feedback.

Qiyuan is bringing personal robots into every household. Built on an advanced technology paradigm, PrimeUMI gives users the ability to train robots with their own hands. Personal robots will continue to evolve and grow ever smarter.

01  The First-Generation UMI Recorded Vision — But Missed the Sense of Touch

For a robot to learn a motion, someone first has to perform it for the robot. UMI (Universal Manipulation Interface), introduced in 2024, took a different approach: the operator holds a gripper and records the action directly, capturing the gripper’s position trajectory in space along with its opening/closing angle. On this type of handheld gripper, the wrist camera is the only sensor, and the gripper’s opening is estimated entirely from vision; all the collected data is visual and geometric. The position trajectory records how the hand moves, and the opening angle records how far the gripper opens. As for how much force the hand applies and when it peaks, there is no corresponding data.

02  Why It Must Be Six Components

Force is measured — but a single channel is not enough. Normal force, tangential force, and torque occur simultaneously in a motion and vary independently of one another. Measuring only one channel cannot distinguish whether the operator is “pressing down harder” or “pushing more abruptly” — the two can produce the same resultant force value. Only when all six components are captured together can the mechanical process of a motion be reproduced. It is with all six components in place that a motion segment can finally be fully explained.

03  Putting Six-Axis Force into the Gripper Tips

To measure all six components on a device, where the device is mounted determines whether it works. Mounting at the wrist and embedding in a handheld gripper are two very different things. The constraints on a handheld device are far stricter than those on a wrist mount: it must be light; it must be small — its dimensions close to the scale of a human hand, otherwise the recorded motions themselves will be distorted; and it must be durable enough for repeated use in real-world scenarios. For six-axis force to fit into this space, three things must be achieved: compact size, high consistency, and wide range with high accuracy. Compressing six-axis force into handheld dimensions relies on two processes: silicon strain gauges and glass micro-melting.

Fig. 03 | Schematic of a robotic gripper tip integrating the F6-020-050 six-axis force sensor (physical unit on the left, components on the right)

Specifications of FocusOneMicro’s three mass-produced series of miniature six-axis force sensors:

04  In Closing

When a collection device begins recording both “how the action was performed” and “how much force was applied,” the motions a robot learns carry, for the first time, a sense of touch. “Raising” a personal robot depends on exactly this data. This time, the partner that connected six-axis force into the collection device is Qiyuan Robotics — and the six-axis force sensor on the gripper comes from FocusOneMicro.