Design and Fabrication of a Bio-inspired Soft Robotic Gripper

Compliant gripping is a promising way to protect delicate objects from the damage caused by contact pressure. Present work proposes the design of a soft gripper inspired by human fingers. The experimental fabrication of gripper is realized by means of a 3D printed hard skeleton made of acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) which is actuated by PDMS-based soft dielectric elastomer actuator. Different actuator configurations are explored to demonstrate the design flexibility of the present approach. Experimental results show that both closing and opening mode of gripper actuations are possible by suitably placing the elastomeric layer. Finally, it is shown that lightweight objects can be precisely handled using three-fingered gripper having claw type configuration.