soft-robotic-gripper

A pneumatically-actuated soft robotic gripper with variable geometry — meaning the finger configuration adapts based on object shape rather than being fixed at design time. Aimed at delicate manipulation tasks where rigid grippers cause surface damage.

Rigid grippers fail on irregular, fragile, or deformable objects — fruit, foam, soft electronics. Soft grippers solve compliance but typically sacrifice precision. The research question: can a soft gripper maintain positional repeatability within ±2 mm while still conforming to irregular geometry?

Designed the pneumatic channel geometry in SolidWorks, fabricated finger bodies using silicone casting (Smooth-On Dragon Skin 20), built the pressure control rig with an STM32 and solenoid valves, and ran the characterisation experiments.

Achieved ±1.8 mm repeatability across 200 grasp cycles on spherical objects. Variable geometry demonstrated on objects ranging from a 30 mm sphere to an irregular foam block. Research paper in progress based on the characterisation data.