EIC Accelerator Winner MANUS and the Robot Teleoperation Race

Robots that learn to handle objects from people need recordings of human fingers, and camera-based hand tracking loses them when they move out of view, a problem the authors of the Ψ₀ humanoid model cite for choosing gloves instead. MANUS, a glove maker in Eindhoven, puts a small electromagnetic transmitter on the back of the hand and receivers in the fingertips, so that finger positions are measured from the field rather than seen. Its own description claims millimetre-level accuracy without the occlusion of optical systems or the drift of inertial sensors. A reseller, Knox Labs, gives 25 degrees of freedom per hand.

The EIC Accelerator selection list published in June 2026 names Manus Technology Group BV with the project ManusCapturePlatform, "A Breakthrough EMF-Based Tracking platform to revolutionize precision motion capture and teleoperation", for blended finance, at the cut-off this dataset dates 6 May 2026. The list itself states that selection "does not constitute a formal commitment for funding". The Netherlands Enterprise Agency reported €22.6 million for three Dutch companies in the round, MANUS among them, made up of €7.5 million in grants and €15.1 million from the EIC Fund, without a figure per company. A CORDIS search for "ManusCapturePlatform" on 4 November 2026 returned no project; projects from 2026 cut-offs are often not listed there yet.

From game controllers to robot hands

The company's own history starts in 2014 with a plan to control virtual reality games with hand gestures instead of a controller, followed by developer kits in 2016 and 2017 under the Manus VR name. Bits & Chips reported in November 2019 that Eindhoven Venture Capital Fund II had invested €2 million in a Series A, and named NASA, Daimler and Volkswagen as clients. The register still carries the early names: OpenCorporates and North Data both list Manus VR and Manus Gamestudio alongside the legal name.

The electromagnetic gloves arrived in 2022. Mixed News reported from that year's Game Developers Conference that the Quantum Metaglove was expected to cost $9,000. In March 2024 Movella launched the Xsens Prime 3 Gloves by Manus at $3,799 as an add-on for its motion capture suits for animators. Since then the company's blog has moved almost entirely to robotics: the Metagloves Pro Haptic in January 2026, support in NVIDIA Isaac Lab in February, and an end-of-life notice for the Quantum Metagloves in May.

Where the gloves are used

The robotics claims can be checked in places MANUS does not control. NVIDIA's Isaac Lab documentation includes a device class described as "Manus gloves and Vive trackers for teleoperation and interaction", which needs the MANUS software kit installed. MANUS calls itself the official data glove of NVIDIA's Isaac Teleop; that wording comes from MANUS, and no NVIDIA statement using it was found.

In research, the Ψ₀ humanoid model from the University of Southern California, with NVIDIA co-authors, states that "Fine-grained finger motions are acquired using MANUS gloves", paired with wrist trackers to avoid the occlusion problems of camera-based hand tracking in VR headsets. On 29 October 2026 the Metagloves Pro Haptic was named Groundbreaking Technology at the Humanoid Robotics Industry Awards, according to the organiser's winners page and the company's announcement.

The company says more than 2,000 robotics companies, AI labs, XR developers and motion capture studios use its products. It publishes no customer list behind that figure, and no revenue figure appears in the accounts that could be read for this article.

The weak point of magnetic tracking

An electromagnetic field is disturbed by metal and electronics, and MANUS has said so. At the 2022 launch, Mixed News reported that tracking could be disrupted by metallic or electronic objects nearby. A reseller's product page for the current haptic glove warns of jitter, drift or reduced accuracy near large metal objects, magnetised tools, motors and electronic devices. That matters for a glove sold to drive robots, which are made of motors and metal.

The only measurement found comes from a competitor. In a March 2026 preprint, the developers of the TAG glove moved a finger from 50 cm to 5 cm of a running PC and recorded a deviation of up to 5.69 degrees for a MANUS glove, against 0.24 degrees for their own. The paper identifies the device only as a commercial Manus glove, and no independent test of the millimetre-accuracy claim was found.

A smaller team with more equity

The filed accounts, as summarised by Liza.nl, show the company active, with staff of 50 in 2022, 48 in 2023, 33 in 2024 and 31 full-time equivalents in 2025. Over the same years equity rose from €2.95 million to €5.30 million and debts fell from €3.24 million to €2.23 million. North Data confirms that balance sheets for 2022 and 2025 were filed, the latest published on 1 April 2026, but shows the figures only to subscribers, so Liza's summary is the only free source for them. Turnover and profit are not published, so whether the rise in equity came from profits or from new share capital cannot be read from these figures, and no funding round after 2019 was found in press coverage.

What the EIC project promises

The selection list gives one sentence: an EMF-based tracking platform for precision motion capture and teleoperation in robotics, AI, XR and other "Industry 5.0" applications. RVO's summary describes a platform that records human movement accurately and at scale to control and train embodied AI. RVO frames the European interest as a contribution to future human-robotics industries. No project page, budget or work plan is public yet, the EIC's results notice of 15 June 2026 does not mention the company, and the MANUS blog carries no post on the award. Isaac Lab, the robotics software that documents the gloves, is NVIDIA's.

1. EMF tracking product on the marketExistsMetagloves Pro and Pro Haptic on sale through MANUS and resellers.
2. Use in robot teleoperation and trainingDocumentedIsaac Lab device class; Ψ₀ paper uses MANUS gloves.
3. Millimetre-level accuracyClaimNo independent test found; a competitor measured up to 5.69 degrees deviation near a PC.
4. The EIC-funded platform at scaleToo earlySelected in 2026; no CORDIS project or work plan public on 4 November 2026.

MANUS was not asked for comment for this article. The reporting is based on publicly available sources, listed below.