Soft grippers enable robots to manipulate delicate objects , but this doesn’t necessarily mean that they’re safe to use around living organisms, such as elderly people, so researchers continue working to improve the perception of soft robotic grippers .

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According to a team at Ritsumeikan University in Japan, one of the main goals in robotics right now is developing a dexterous robotic gripper with capabilities that are safer and more human-like. The researchers have been working to design 3D printed soft, sensitive robotic fingers that would be a major step in the right direction toward safer robots, and recently published a study about their work in the journal Nano Energy . The abstract states, “Proprioceptive sensation via embedded flexible sensors is essential for soft robotic grippers to realize safe and dexterous grasping. We demonstrate a self-powered, flexible multifunctional sensor by combining a polyvinylidene difluoride film with a microstructured jamming layer. The jamming layers and the finger body are fabricated by a multimaterial 3D printing technology.” In order to complete various tasks, soft grippers should have a sense of their own position and movements, known as proprioception, but sensors are an important part of this process, and most existing sensors […]

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