Video Transcript
North Carolina (NC) State University researchers revealed their work on a robotic gripping device with the versatility to handle items as delicate as a single drop of water and as heavy as a 14-pound weight. The researchers said the single soft gripper could be helpful in food processing, electronics and pharmaceuticals manufacturing, agriculture, and deep-sea exploration.
The co-author of a paper on the project, Yaoye Hong, said the single gripper is built upon principles drawn from kirigami, a Japanese technique that involves folding and cutting two-dimensional materials to craft three-dimensional structures. Hong added that users could craft the grippers from biodegradable materials, a solution for scenarios where the grippers are used for a limited period, like when handling biomedical materials or food.
The single gripper weighs just under half a gram and can lift as much as 6.4 kilograms. The paper’s corresponding author, Jie Yin, explained that a single gripper’s payload-to-weight ratio, which typically measures a robotic gripper’s strength, is approximately 16,000. According to NC State, this breaks the previous payload-to-weight ratio record of 6,400.
The single gripper’s precisely guided paths enable the incorporation of the gripper into robotic arms and prostheses. This allows it to fold a cloth and lift microfilms that are 20 times thinner than human hair. Additionally, the myoelectric prosthesis lets electrical signals made by forearm muscles control the single gripper. To demonstrate, the researchers used the grippers with a myoelectric prosthetic hand to pick grapes from a vine and flip a book’s pages.
