Robotic grippers usually face a tough trade-off: they can either be flexible enough to move around tricky objects, or strong enough to hold them firmly - but not both. Now, researchers have come up with a clever workaround.
Robot hand finger making contact or pressing something on dark isolated background.
Study: Loop closure grasping: Topological transformations enable strong, gentle, and versatile grasps. Image Credit: feeling lucky/Shutterstock.com
They’ve designed a new kind of soft robotic gripper that changes shape mid-task. It starts as an open loop to wrap around objects, then closes into a secure loop to lift and hold them. The technique, called loop closure grasping, lets the gripper safely lift everything from fragile produce to a full-grown adult.
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