A high-load bioinspired soft gripper with force booster fingers

Significantly improving the load capacity of soft grippers while taking into account their flexibility is a challenge that must be addressed to promote their application in more fields. This work proposes a universal method to equip the tip of soft bending actuators with bioinspired force booster fingers to greatly increase the payload of multi-finger soft grippers. Theoretical modeling expresses the mechanical principle of the proposed soft gripper that can generate high load force, and the relationship between the pull-off force and the inflation pressure of the force booster fingers. Experiments show that the proposed soft gripper composed of four bending soft pneumatic actuators has a maximum grasping force of similar to 1960 N, which is more than 17 times the existing level, and can lift the human body. This work provides a new design idea for the development of soft grippers that have a large payload, which is to equip the tip of soft bending actuators with contact or non-contact force booster devices.

Automated summary

This study proposes a universal method to significantly improve the load capacity of soft grippers by equipping them with bioinspired force booster fingers. The theoretical modeling and experiments demonstrate that the soft gripper can generate high load force, reaching up to 1960N, which is more than 17 times the existing level.