A variable stiffness soft gripper with integrated ion-drag pump

Michael Smith, Krishna Manaswi Digumarti, Vito Cacuciollo, Herbert Shea

Published: 01 Jan 2022, Last Modified: 28 Oct 2025Proceedings of SPIE: Electroactive Polymer Actuators and Devices (EAPAD) XXIVEveryoneRevisionsBibTeXCC BY-SA 4.0
Abstract: We present a compact, prehensile and soft gripper capable of varying its stiffness on demand, allowing not only grasping but also manipulation of objects. The gripper consists of fluidic chambers within a silicone structure and two electrostatic clutches bonded to opposite external surfaces. Actuation is achieved by pressurizing the chambers using an integrated electrohydrodynamic ‘ion-drag’ pump while simultaneously blocking one of the clutches, causing the structure to bend around and grasp an object. Once the object is grasped, the second clutch is blocked, significantly increasing the bending stiffness of the structure and allowing the object to be manipulated.