When you think of robots, rigid mechanics are likely to come to mind.
But,scientists at Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, a research university in Switzerland, have developed a way to give robotics a softer touch with a special gripper.
Made out of rubber and stretchable electrodes, the gripper can gently pick up fragile items, and anything else for that matter, up to 100 times its own weight.
It works through electroadhesion. The university’s website explains it as an electrostatic stickiness.
When the switch is flipped, the electrostatic forces are generated through the electrodes. The flaps then bend toward the object and the gripper’s patterned tips stick on.
Researchers say it’s lightweight and scaleable—which means it can be used in a variety of ways like handling delicate food or catching debris in space.
The gripper can pick up round, square, flat or oddly shaped objects. The interesting part: the gripper doesn’t have to know in advance what it’s going to grab.
