Soft grippers, methods of making the same, systems and methods of controlling the same

Abstract

In some embodiments, provided is soft grippers, methods of making the same, systems and methods of controlling the same. In one embodiment, the soft gripper comprises a main body comprising a suction cup portion and a neck portion; and a contact membrane, wherein the neck portion comprises a neck chamber and the suction cup portion comprises a suction cup chamber therein, together form a main chamber that is configured to be in gas communication with a first pneumatic source and to receive a jamming material, and wherein the neck portion comprises at least one assisted chambers therein disposed around the neck chamber and configured to be in gas communication with a second pneumatic source. Other example embodiments are described herein. In certain embodiments, provided soft grippers enable seamless transformation between suction gripper configuration and jamming gripper configuration, thereby enhanced grasping capability and versatility.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.