This new approach to grasping combines Professor L. The gripper could be used in real-world applications to grasp soft fruits and vegetables for agricultural production and distribution, delicate tissue in medical settings, even irregularly shaped objects in warehouses, such as glassware. The researchers used simulations and experiments to test the efficacy of the gripper, picking up a range of objects, including various houseplants and toys. To release the object, the filaments are simply depressurized. While the collective hold is strong, each contact is individually weak and won't damage even the most fragile object.

The curls knot and entangle with each other and the object, with each entanglement increasing the strength of the hold. One side of the tube has thicker rubber than the other, so when the tube is pressurized, it curls like a pigtail or like straightened hair on a rainy day. The foot-long filaments are hollow, rubber tubes.

The gripper's strength and adaptability come from its ability to entangle itself with the object it is attempting to grasp. 'By taking advantage of the natural compliance of soft robotics and enhancing it with a compliant structure, we designed a gripper that is greater than the sum of its parts and a grasping strategy that can adapt to a range of complex objects with minimal planning and perception.'īecker is currently an Assistant Professor of Mechanical Engineering at MIT. 'With this research, we wanted to reimagine how we interact with objects,' said Kaitlyn Becker, former graduate student and postdoctoral fellow at SEAS and first author of the paper. The research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ( PNAS). The gripper relies on simple inflation to wrap around objects and doesn't require sensing, planning, or feedback control. But together, the collection of filaments can grasp and securely hold heavy and oddly shaped objects. Alone, individual tentacles, or filaments, are weak. Taking inspiration from nature, they designed a new type of soft, robotic gripper that uses a collection of thin tentacles to entangle and ensnare objects, similar to how jellyfish collect stunned prey. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) have demonstrated an easier way. Most of today's robotic grippers rely on embedded sensors, complex feedback loops, or advanced machine learning algorithms, combined with the skill of the operator, to grasp fragile or irregularly shaped objects.

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