# A bistable soft gripper with mechanically embedded sensing and actuation for fast closed-loop grasping

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a soft robotic gripper with a bistable mechanism enabling rapid, sensor-less, dynamic grasping of unknown objects within 0.02 seconds, enhancing speed and simplicity over traditional designs.

## Contribution

The work presents a novel bistable soft gripper design that allows fast, sensor-less grasping by storing and releasing strain energy, with theoretical analysis and experimental validation.

## Key findings

- Achieved sensor-less grasping within 0.02 seconds
- Demonstrated effective grasping of unknown objects
- Provided finite element analysis insights into design parameters

## Abstract

Soft robotic grippers are shown to be high effective for grasping unstructured objects with simple sensing and control strategies. However, they are still limited by their speed, sensing capabilities and actuation mechanism. Hence, their usage have been restricted in highly dynamic grasping tasks. This paper presents a soft robotic gripper with tunable bistable properties for sensor-less dynamic grasping. The bistable mechanism allows us to store arbitrarily large strain energy in the soft system which is then released upon contact. The mechanism also provides flexibility on the type of actuation mechanism as the grasping and sensing phase is completely passive. Theoretical background behind the mechanism is presented with finite element analysis to provide insights into design parameters. Finally, we experimentally demonstrate sensor-less dynamic grasping of an unknown object within 0.02 seconds, including the time to sense and actuate.