Soft particles reinforce robotic grippers: Robotic grippers based on granular jamming of soft particles

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that using soft particles like expanded polystyrene beads in granular jamming significantly enhances gripping forces in robotic grippers, revealing unique properties of the jammed phase due to elasticity.

Contribution

It introduces the use of soft particles in granular jamming for robotic gripping, showing improved force and distinct jammed phase properties compared to rigid particles.

Findings

Soft particles increase gripping force substantially.

Elasticity alters jammed phase properties.

Contradicts naive expectations about jamming behavior.

Abstract

Granular jamming has been identified as a fundamental mechanism for the operation of robotic grippers. In this work, we show, that soft particles like expanded polystyrene beads lead to significantly larger gripping forces in comparison to rigid particles. In contradiction to naive expectation, the combination of jamming and elasticity gives rise to very different properties of the jammed phase, compared to hard-particle systems. This may be of interest also beyond the application in robotic grippers.