This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been

fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LRA.2017.2716445, IEEE Robotics
and Automation Letters
IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS. PREPRINT VERSION. JUNE, 2017 1

A Soft-Robotic Gripper with Enhanced Object

Adaptation and Grasping Reliability
Jianshu Zhou1, Student Member, IEEE, Shu Chen2, and Zheng Wang* 1,2, Senior Member, IEEE


Abstract—A novel soft-robotic gripper design is presented, with

three soft bending fingers and one passively adaptive palm. Each
soft finger comprises of two ellipse-profiled pneumatic chambers.
Combined with the adaptive palm and the surface patterned
feature, the soft gripper could achieve 40 N grasping force in
practice, 10 times the self-weight, at a very low actuation pressure
below 100 kPa. With novel soft finger design, the gripper could
pick up small objects, as well as conform to large convex-shape
objects with reliable contact. The fabrication process was
presented in detail, involving commercial-grade 3D-printing and
molding of silicone rubber. The fabricated actuators and gripper
were tested on a dedicated platform, showing the gripper could
reliably grasp objects of various shapes and sizes, even with Figure.1. The proposed Soft-Robotic Gripper.
external disturbances.

Ⅰ. INTRODUCTION of human hand taxonomy, promising for interaction with human

by using prosthesis. Furthermore, to achieve inherent
S oft robots attracted wide interests in the robotics research
community [1-4]. With their inherent mechanical
compliance, soft robots have unique advantages in
compliance and adaptability, the soft material could combine
conventional robotic hand designs with different finger joint
actuating mechanisms, such as tendon-driven [17, 18. 19], gear
environments requiring conformity and variable stiffness [1]. In and rod [20, 21], or driving rigid joints directly [22]. However,
grasping applications, the compliant soft grippers could adapt to the inherent compliance of soft grippers often limits their
object shapes without specific control inputs, dramatically maximum force output. hence limiting grasping reliability and
reducing system complexity and cost, while improving grasping payload capabilities [9, 10].
performance and safety [3], compared to rigid robotic grippers
[5]. In this work, we aim to design a soft grasping system with
both adaptation ability and robust grasping security. A novel
Global aging presents new challenges to robotic research: tri-fingered soft-robotic gripper is proposed, comprising of three
robots to assist human beings in Activities of Daily Living dual-chambered ellipse-profile soft pneumatic fingers, and a
(ADL), in order for the society to cope with labor shortage in the novel palm design with a compliant chamber. Both the fingers
service, elderly-care, and healthcare industries [6]. With humans and the palm featured surface textures for enhanced grasping
being the main interaction target, the primary concerns of such reliability. The resulting soft-robotic gripper with 406 g
service robots will be shifted from those for industrial robots self-weight could securely hold 4 kg payload at an input
(accuracy, strength, speed, etc.) to human-centered criteria, such pressure of 100 kPa, sufficiently covering most objects in ADL.
as safety, adaptability, task-worthiness, and affordability [7-10]. The design of the soft-robotic gripper will be presented in
Following the new requirements, soft robotic grippers are Section II, followed by the fabrication process in Section III.
potentially ideal candidates, exploiting the intrinsic mechanical Experimental results on the fabricated gripper will be presented
property of soft material. There are soft grippers, with one in Section IV, with conclusions in Section V.
bending actuator [30], two fingers [15], tri-fingers [11, 16, 29],
and multi-fingers [12], making compliant contact to objects and II. SOFT ROBOTIC GRIPPER DESIGN
increasing grasping safety to fragile materials ranged from daily
The proposed soft-robotic gripper is shown in Figure.1,
vegetables to deep sea reefs. Besides, soft dexterous
comprising of three pneumatic-driven soft fingers, a compliant
anthropomorphic hands [13, 14] could realize most grasp types
palm, auxiliary components and pneumatic connection fittings.
Manuscript received: February, 15, 2017; Revised, 14, 2017; Accepted，June, A. Finger design
01, 2017.
This paper was recommended for publication by Editor Ding Han upon
Pneumatic bending soft actuators are widely adopted in soft
evaluation of the Associate Editor and Reviewer’ comments. The presented robotic hands and grippers, combining actuation and structural
research has been supported by Hong Kong RGC-ECS Grant 27210315, HKU components to enhance adaptability and inherent compliance
Seed Funding for Basic Research 201511159051, and Shenzhen Science and [14, 23, 30]. However, the passive compliance will also limit the
Technology Fund for Basic Research JCYJ20150629151046885. structural rigidity, both actuated and in free-state, resulting in
J. Zhou, S. Chen and *Z. Wang are with the Department of Mechanical
the gripper failing to grasp heavy objects firmly. Continuous
Engineering, the University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam, Hong Kong SAR,
China(email:[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]). single-chambered soft bending actuators could follow the
*Z. Wang is also with the HKU Shenzhen Institute of Research and unique pre-defined motion trajectory, however without adapting
Innovation (HKU-SIRI), Shenzhen, China. Corresponding author, e-mail: to multiple object contours, which often resulted in the limited
[email protected], Tel: +852-3917-7905, Fax: +852-2858-5415. contact area and hindered grasping reliability.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI): see top of this page.

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LRA.2017.2716445, IEEE Robotics
and Automation Letters
IEEE ROBOTICS AND AUTOMATION LETTERS. PREPRINT VERSION. JUNE, 2017 2

Figure.3. Three grasping modes with passive compliance: (a) Both

sections actuated; (b) Section1 only. (c) Section2 only.

Figure.2. Finger design.

The proposed soft bending actuator in this study comprises of
two axially-aligned sections, with each section actuated Figure.4. Palm design. (a) Palm model. (b) Sectional view of inner
independently, as shown in Figure.2. Each section has a support silicon pillars. (c) Sectional view of three compliance levels: (i)
continuous fiber-reinforced inflatable air chamber similar to the Unsupported surface, (ii) Supported surface, (iii) Hard bottom.
actuator design featured in [23]. However, the cross section of
grasping successfulness and reliability [14, 15]. Active particle
the proposed actuator is ellipse-shaped, compared with the
jamming was reported to be helpful to object grasping [26]. In
hemi-circular shape in [23], to reduce material stress at the edge
this work, we propose an alternative approach to soft robotic
of hemi-circular actuator caused by limiting layer surface
palm design, by using passive compliance to achieve reliable
bulging [24]. In Figure.2, L1 and L2 are the lengths of the two
grasping without requiring additional actuation.
chambers, Chamber1 and Chamber2, respectively; Lm is the
length of the inter-sectional silicone wall; θ1 and θ2 are the The proposed cylindrical palm design consists of a passive air
bending angles generated by each section. The independent chamber with a soft material passive compliant surface
sections enabled two actuation modes of the finger: supported by supporting pillars as shown in Figure.4(a)(b). The
pillars were aligned in a hexagon pattern and divided the
1. If the two chambers are pressurized with the same input
chamber into six segments. Therefore the palm could offer three
pressure, the deformation of the proposed finger will be
different compliance levels as shown in Figure.4 (c): a)
similar to the single-chamber actuator in [23] with
unsupported surface: lowest stiffness, easiest to deform; b)
similar dimensions.
supporting surface: medium stiffness, still deformable; and c)
2. If the two sections are actuated independently, resulting hard bottom surface: highest stiffness, non-deformable. By
in different θ1 and θ2 angles, the actuator could reach carefully selecting the dimensions of the pillars and the palm
larger area than the first mode, allowing the finger to surface, the proposed palm design could provide both
conform to complex-shaped objects. compliance and sufficient support.
Additionally, the passive compliance of the bending section C. Contact surface feature design
enables new features for the proposed finger when grasping The contact surfaces of both the fingers and the palm are
large convex-shaped objects. The concept of the novel grasping covered with a specific surface feature to improve grasping
mode is illustrated in Figure.3. For a convex-shape object larger performance and reliability. The proposed contact surface
than the gripper volume, the first section of the fingers will be feature is illustrated in Figure.5(a), with raised soft-material
actuated to maintain contact, while the second section of the cylinders of diameter RA and height LA forming an array pattern
fingers will be passively conforming to the object contour, along the contact surface. The distances between two adjacent
exploiting their passive compliance to adapt Figure.3(b), cylinders are denoted Dx and Dy respectively. All the above
significantly increasing the contact area between the gripper and parameters could be varied according to each application. In this
the object surface compared to point contact resulting from work, cylinders with uniform RA=2mm are aligned in uniform
actuating both sections uniformly Figure.3(a). array (Dx=Dy=3mm) For the palm surface Figure.5(b), the
Inversely, actuating the second section of the finger and set cylinders have uniform height LA=5mm , while for the finger
the first section free as shown in Figure.3(c), the gripper could surface, the cylinders have different heights to form an uniform
lift objects with relatively small contact force. During this distal contact surface (LA≥3mm) as shown in Figure.5(c). The
process, the second section of the finger just hold the button of proposed contact surface feature serves the following purposes:
objects, therefore the contact force is only caused by the 1. Reduce input pressure: the raised surface features could be
self-weight of grasping target. This grasping method is easily rearranged with actuator bending, without material
promising when dealing with fragile and soft objects, which are stretch or compression, therefore the actuator could be bent
easily damaged under large contact force. with lower input pressure, compared to the same dimension
Besides, to deal with light small objects, we design a actuator without these surface feature, because rubber poles
triangular nail for the finger. With the help of nail, the gripper could fill the small gap before the finger surface contact the
could pinch up small objects, which are relatively difficult to object.
accomplish for gripper without such nail structure. 2. Improve contact: the small features will easily fit to object
B. Palm design features with similar sizes, improving contact on a small
scale and contribute to grasping reliability.
The palm plays an important role in power grasping both for
the human hand and robotic hands, it could substantially affect

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This article has been accepted for publication in a future issue of this journal, but has not been fully edited. Content may change prior to final publication. Citation information: DOI 10.1109/LRA.2017.2716445, IEEE Robotics
and Automation Letters
ZHOU et al.: A Soft-Robotic Gripper with Enhanced Object Adaptation and Grasping Reliability 3

Dx LA

Dy RA

(a) (b) (c)

Figure.5. Contact surface feature design. (a) Surface feature details. (b)
Surface feature of a finger. (c) Surface feature of the palm.

3. Compensate the convex finger surface: the ellipse finger

shape will result in a point contact with objects with flat
surfaces; the raised feature will compensate the finger
surface and maintain a flat distal surface.
D. Soft-robotic gripper design
In the gripper design, we aim to achieve reliable grasping
from the compliant nature of the proposed soft actuators, while
maintaining a simple structure. A tri-finger-single-palm setup Figure.6. Soft robotic gripper design. (a) Finger mounting. (b) Passive
was selected, with reference to the thumb, index and middle grasping. (c) Active grasping. (d) Buckling finger.
finger as the most important fingers in grasping [12, 13, 21]. Section1 of the finger is fully actuated, while Section2 is passive.
There is a 120 degree angle between each pair of adjacent As a result, the finger is fully buckled towards the palm and
fingers [15,16]. The design parameters and modeling variables formed a small area with radius rs:
of the soft gripper are shown in Figure.6. The grasping volume
of the gripper is adjustable by changing the finger mounting L1
angle shown in Figure.6(a). rs  (7)

For soft gripper, the bending deformation of the finger is
continuous, therefore the relationship of grasping volume and The proposed soft-robotic gripper could use three fingers
design parameters is different from the rigid joint gripper. We manipulating objects ranging from rs to Rmax, calculated using
attempt to find out the relationship between design parameters Equations (2), (5) and (6).
and grasping volume of soft gripper, then we could depend on III. FABRICATION
the proposed relationship adjusting design parameters to adapt
different working requirements. The grasping volume of soft The manufacturing process was based on silicone molding
gripper could be estimated using the finger mounting angle θ, uses 3D printed molds as shown in Figure.7. Silicone rubber
the mounting distance l, and the finger length m [26]: Dragon Skin 10 was used in this study.
The two sections of each soft robotic finger were fabricated
1. The maximum sphere size for passive grasping is illustrated
together as shown in Figure.7(a).The inner mold was 3D-
in Figure.6(b)(c), where Section1 is actuated and Section2 in
printed with an ellipse profile. In order to isolate the two
free-state so as to passively conform to the shape of the
adjacent chambers, two inner rods were inserted in opposite
grasping target. The maximum grasping size is defined by
directions and the middle region was filled with silicone to
the distance L:
separate the chambers. The inner mold had a small vent on one
L  l  2m sin  (1) side to insert air tube. The air tube was attached at the base of the
finger for Chamber1, and the middle part for Chamber2.
L l  2m sin 
Rmax_ passive  R   (2) A strain-limiting layer and reinforcement fiber were
2 2
attached to each chamber to constrain expansion and generate
2. For active grasping, both sections are actuated. If the fingers bending in the desired direction Figure.7(b). Glass fiber sheet
could encircle the spherical object in Figure.6(c): with a shear strength of 320N per inch was used as the
G  2 F (  sin   cos  ) (3) strain-limiting layer. The reinforcement fiber used was nylon
G fiber line with 0.6mm diameter. The outer protection layer were
F (4)
2(  sin   cos  ) molded next, followed by sealing both ends Figure.7(c-e). The
l finger nail could be molded together with the upper sealing end
R sin  
m 2  R (5) to improve small object handling Figure.7(f). The palm was
cos  fabricated using a two-step molding process: 1) mold the lower
 layer with the supporting pillars; 2) mold the upper layer with
where:     . Therefore,
2 the surface features Figure.7(g-j). Finally, the gripper was
l  assembled Figure.7(k) with 3D-printed auxiliary components.
Rmax_ active  (m  ) / (    tan  ) (6)
2 cos  2
IV. EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION
Besides, compared to one chamber finger, our proposed
In this section, the fabricated soft robotic fingers, palm, and
finger could reach the red shadow area shown in Figure.6(d).
gripper will be validated by experiments.
The larger area where our proposed gripper could reach created
by buckling one of the three fingers. In this case,

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Figure.7. Fabrication process. (a) Mold the inner two chambers using 3D printed molds. (b) Attach stain limiting layer and reinforcement fiber. (c) Mold
the outer layer and the surface pattern. (d) Finished chamber wall. (e) Seal both ends and mold finger nail. (f) Finished soft finger. (g) Mold of palm base.
(h) Finished palm base. (i) Mold of palm surface with surface pattern. (j) Finished palm. (k) Final assembly with three fingers and palm with the mounting
scaffold to get the soft robotic gripper.

Figure.11. (a)(b) Surface feature test platform. (c) Featured skin, smooth
skin (2mm), and printed bulge surface.

Figure.8. Finger bending at different pressure levels

Figure.12. Feature skin friction performance comparison.

Figure.9. Finger passive compliance test.

Figure.13. Well compliance of passive palm. (a)(b) Test pyramid and
sphere on the surface of palm, (c)(d) pressed indent into the palm.

A. Single finger motion in free-space

In this experiment, we present the relationship between the
supplied pressure and the bending motion of the finger. Since
the proposed finger has two individual chambers, let P1 be the
supplied pressure of the Chamber1, and P2 for Chamber2,
different P1 and P2 values would result in various finger
Figure.10. Finger P-F test. (a)(b) Test platform. (c) Test result.
motions, as shown in Figure.8. Without external load, the soft
finger could reach a full bending of 360 degrees with 80 kPa
supplied to both chambers.

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ZHOU et al.: A Soft-Robotic Gripper with Enhanced Object Adaptation and Grasping Reliability 5

Figure.14. (a) Grasping force test platform (b) Test result.

Figure.15. Passive deformation. (a) Cylinder. (b) Slant cylinder. (c) Cone.
B. Finger compliance and force test
Another novel function of the proposed soft robotic finger is
the passive compliance of the unactuated section. When the soft
pneumatic actuator is pressurized, the deformation ability is
determined by the supplied pressure. A zero-pressure section
will exhibit the largest passive compliance. In this experiment,
the soft finger was mounted to a mounting base, with a fixed
board near the bending direction. The first finger section was
actuated while the second section was kept passive. As the first
section bent, the second section was gradually buckled against
the board mounted opposite to the finger, with the entire first
section in contact with the board at a very large contact area, as
shown in Figure.9. The passive compliance is especially useful
for grasping large and flat objects.
Force test of soft fingers was conducted following a similar
procedure to [17], where the soft finger was firmly mounted at
the proximal tip, with the distal tip free, and the middle section
of the actuator pressed against a fixed force sensor as shown in
Figure.10(a)(b). Different pressures were supplied to the
Chamber1 of the soft finger, the resulting forces were recorded
from a force sensor in contact with the middle point. Each
pressure level was repeated 6 times and averaged. The results
exhibited good linearity as shown in Figure.10(c).
C. Palm feature and palm passive adaptation test
To evaluate the performance of the surface feature, a
comparison test was conducted on the test platform presented in Figure.16. Daily objects grasping.
Figure.11(a). Two kinds of test skins were made as shown in
Figure.11(c): a surface featured skin and a smooth surface skin. D. Gripper grasping force test.
The process in Figure.11(b) was using each test skin rubbing The fabricated gripper was tested for its grasping capability
through a 3D-printed triangular bulge material shown in on a dedicated test platform as shown in Figure.14(a). A
Figure.11(c), which simulates the common edges and corners dedicated test object of spherical shape was 3D-printed and
of objects. The test skin was clapped at the button of load connected by an inextensible cable to a force sensor mounted on
connector, which mounted on one vertical slide rail. The a motorized platform movable along the vertical z-axis.
printed bulge surface mounted on one horizontal slide rail and
was driven by one tendon linked to the force sensor. Three For each test trial, the soft gripper first grasped the object
different loads at 100 g, 200 g, 300 g applied on the load firmly at a pre-set pressure, then the force sensor was moved
connector were used to adjust the contact positive pressure downwards by the motorized platform until the object was
between the test skin and the bulge material. pulled out of the gripper. The experiment was repeated at 30 kPa,
60 kPa, 90 kPa, and 120 kPa input pressures. Forces were
The results in Figure.12 showed significant improvements of recorded throughout the entire test procedure. The test force
contact friction for the group with featured skin compared to threshold was set as 40 N and the test results were presented in
the group with smooth surface. The improvement suggests that Figure.14(b). At 30 kPa and 60 kPa, the object could be pulled
the gripper with featured skin maintained grasping security, out, while at 90 kPa and 120 kPa the force reached the 40 N
whereas the counterpart gripper without featured skin failed threshold earlier. This indicated that combining the
under the same contact force. contributions of the proposed soft actuator and the surface
To assess the effectiveness of palm passive adaptation, two feature, the resulting soft gripper could carry 4 kg payload in
objects were tested: a sphere and a tetrahedron as shown in practice, at a very low actuation pressure below 100 kPa.
Figure.13(a)(b). The palm conformed well to the contour of E. Grasping performance
each object, which suggests that the passive adaptable palm is In the final test, the soft gripper was used to grasp a series of
easy to wrap edges, corners, and curved surface of objects. daily objects. As shown in Figure.15, three sample objects were
3D-printed with inclining sliding surfaces. With the passive first

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