Kyber Labs Founders Crash the "Over the Horizon" Podcast for a Technical Deep Dive

Just days after Kyber Labs broke cover with a video of a robotic hand spinning a nut at reflex-level speeds, the startup’s founders made a surprise appearance on the Over the Horizon podcast to face questions from industry experts.

The episode, hosted by journalist Royden D’Souza, was originally scheduled as a reaction piece featuring robotics analyst Scott Walter and Swedish hand surgeon Gustav Andersson. However, founders Yonatan Robbins and Tyler Habowski "crashed" the recording, offering a rare, unscripted technical breakdown of the hardware that has generated over 100,000 views on X this week.

For those interested in the granular engineering of robotic manipulation, this conversation offers the clearest picture yet of Kyber’s philosophy.

The "Anti-Humanoid" Robot Company

One of the most distinct takeaways from the interview was Kyber's strategic positioning. Despite building an anthropomorphic hand, Habowski described the startup as "the anti-humanoid humanoid robot company."

Drawing on his background at SpaceX, where he worked on flight reusability, Habowski argued that the industry is currently over-indexing on general-purpose walking robots for tasks that don't require them.

"We’re trying to build a modular manipulation platform," Habowski told the panel. "The software doesn't really care how the hand is moving around, just that it can get to the place in space that it needs."

The company’s thesis is that a significant portion of industrial automation—specifically kitting, assembly, and machine tending—requires human-level manual dexterity but not a bipedal form factor. Their goal is to mount these hands on simple arms or wheeled bases to solve "boring" logistics problems immediately, rather than waiting for a full humanoid to become viable.

20 Degrees of Freedom, No Springs

The podcast also settled the debate regarding the hand's internal architecture, which Walter and Andersson had attempted to reverse-engineer earlier in the episode.

Habowski confirmed the hand utilizes 20 degrees of freedom (DOF) actuated by 40 full tendons, with all motors housed in the forearm. Crucially, the team avoided using mechanical springs or under-actuation (where one motor drives multiple joints).

"We wanted to be able to know the full position of the hand at all points so that there was no uncertainty," Habowski explained. By maintaining direct control over every joint via tendons, the system avoids the control complexities that arise when using springs for compliance.

Solving the "Hot Hand" Problem

A major point of discussion was thermal management—a notorious failure point for dexterous hands. Walter noted that many competitors placing servos directly inside the palm or fingers offer impressive dexterity for 20 minutes before overheating and requiring a shutdown.

Kyber’s approach relies on a "shared heat" philosophy. By clustering the custom-built, frameless brushless DC motors in the forearm and mechanically bonding them to a single metal structure, the arm acts as a giant heat sink.

"You can share heat across a lot of motors," Habowski said. "It’s a much more effective way to do it [than independent servos]." This allows the hand to operate continuously in industrial environments without the thermal throttling that plagues other dexterous manipulators.

Nails and Proprietory Sensors

The conversation also touched on the subtle biomimetic details of the design. Dr. Gustav Andersson pointed out the inclusion of fingernails on the robot, a feature often overlooked in mechatronic design. He noted that nails are essential for providing counter-force to the soft flesh of the fingertip, allowing for the retrieval of thin objects like needles or paper.

While the current prototype relies on motor currents for "proprioception" (sensing touch via resistance), the founders revealed they have developed a proprietary tactile sensor that will appear on the next iteration of the hand.

Watch to the Full Episode

The full interview is a refreshing departure from standard talking points, diving into supply chain resilience, the "Fermi paradox" of robotic hands, and why Kyber plans to release 50 hands for free to researchers to "seed" the industry.

You can watch the full episode of Over the Horizon below.