A robotic gripper has been developed by the team which combines the adhesive properties of gecko toes as well as adaptability of the air powered soft robots in order to grasp a much wider variety of objects than the state of the art.
It has been resulted into tight vacuum seal with low force properties. This gripper can lift up to 45ibs and could be used in order to grasp any objects in the wide range of the settings.
There is an innovative combination of the elements from both adhesive grippers as well as soft robotic grippers which give the gripper flexibility for picking up objects which cover a broad array of shapes, sizes as well as textures.
A gripper of 48.7G has also been designed and created by the team which has been equipped with three grippers after building on the success of the first gripper. It can handle a soda can, a delicate tomato and even a volcanic rock sample.
It has been reported by the team that it can lift 11.3kg of weight at 40 kilopascals of the internal pressure. They have been developed at the UC san diago bio inspired robotic and design lab. There is also a beefed up 3 digit version that can handle higher loads.
It has been demonstrated by the researchers that the gripper could grasp as well as manipulate rough, porous and the dirty objects such as volcanic rocks as it is a task which is typically challenging for gecko adhesives.
