Fabric-Based Soft Grippers Capable of Selective Distributed Bending for Assistance of Daily Living Tasks

This paper presents two designs of soft grippers able to mount on a Soft-Poly Limb to enable user assistance in manipulation tasks during activities of daily living. The grippers are composed of soft actuators made with high-strength inflatable fabrics, offering variable range of compliance, lightweight designs, and high strength-to-weight ratios. Their motion is achieved based on selective distributed bending, which allows joints to form along any point of the length of the grippers. In particular, the designs of an opposing multi-fingered gripper and a bio-inspired continuum gripper are explored. Furthermore, the introduction of a rotational wrist joint, which converts bending motion of a soft actuator array to rotational motion is utilized to control orientation of the aforementioned grippers. Through series of qualitative and quantitative evaluations the fabricated grippers are found capable of both high-strength pinch and power grasping enabling reliable manipulation of objects encountered in daily living tasks.