A review of soft robotic grippers

What is it about?

Soft robotic grippers are robotic hands and hand effectors made using compliant materials and mechanisms. Similar to classic robotic hands, their goals are to pick-up, manipulate and place objects. The use of soft materials makes soft grippers able to pick-up a large variety of objects with minimal control required. In this article, we review the field of soft grippers from the pioneer works in the 80's to nowadays, classifying them by gripping mechanism (actuation, stiffness change, adhesion) and technology (e.g., fluidic actuators, electroadhesion).

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Why is it important?

The field of soft grippers is gaining extreme popularity in the last years, thanks to their unique combination of simplicity and versatility. Is one of the few fields in soft robotics whose technologies have been transferred to industry. This review article is a map of this vast field, which includes a large number of technologies and designs.

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