Universal Gripper for Industrial Manipulation With Enhanced Rigid Mechanics and Self‐Adaptable Fingers

Soft grippers lack the precision and payload capacity required for industrial adoption, whereas most developed hybrid grippers are not suitable for harsh and versatile industrial environments, and designing a gripper capable of realizing the optimal handling of both soft and rigid objects remains a challenge. This work presents significant enhancements to our universal gripper with rigid mechanics and self‐adaptable fingers for powertrain automation and assembly applications. The redesigned self‐adaptable fingers, validated through finite element analysis and experimental testing, achieved an improvement in the wrapping capability while increasing the maximum retention force. The transformation from a four‐bar to six‐bar linkage mechanism with an integrated compliant pad eliminated rigid link interference issues, enabling articulation angles up to δ 1 = −22° and δ 2 = −15° while maintaining 95.3% force transmission efficiency. These enhancements expanded the operational capacity from 3 to 7.5 kg maximum payload and increased the grasping diameter by 23% to 270 mm. Comprehensive validation through pull‐out tests and robotic grasping experiments with objects ranging from 247 to 7500 g demonstrated the performance of the enhanced industrial gripper with 100% success rate. The enhanced gripper combines soft robotic adaptability with industrial reliability through passive compliance, enabling flexible manufacturing.

Authors

Institutions

Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Robotics Research
Published
2026-03-04
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adrr.202500165
Primary Topic
Soft Robotics and Applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
Controls
|||
ALL TIME
JAN
FEB
MAR
APR
MAY
JUN
JUL
AUG
SEP
OCT
article

Universal Gripper for Industrial Manipulation With Enhanced Rigid Mechanics and Self‐Adaptable Fingers

Alessandro Zanella, Matteo Zoppi, B Lévesque, Nishant Ravikumar et al.
Advanced Robotics Research
Soft Robotics and Applications
article

Universal Gripper for Industrial Manipulation With Enhanced Rigid Mechanics and Self‐Adaptable Fingers

Alessandro Zanella, Matteo Zoppi, B Lévesque, Nishant Ravikumar, Mattia Frascio, Alessandro Seitone, Sumanth Nagalakunta, Muhammad Usman Khalid
article en

Abstract

Soft grippers lack the precision and payload capacity required for industrial adoption, whereas most developed hybrid grippers are not suitable for harsh and versatile industrial environments, and designing a gripper capable of realizing the optimal handling of both soft and rigid objects remains a challenge. This work presents significant enhancements to our universal gripper with rigid mechanics and self‐adaptable fingers for powertrain automation and assembly applications. The redesigned self‐adaptable fingers, validated through finite element analysis and experimental testing, achieved an improvement in the wrapping capability while increasing the maximum retention force. The transformation from a four‐bar to six‐bar linkage mechanism with an integrated compliant pad eliminated rigid link interference issues, enabling articulation angles up to δ 1 = −22° and δ 2 = −15° while maintaining 95.3% force transmission efficiency. These enhancements expanded the operational capacity from 3 to 7.5 kg maximum payload and increased the grasping diameter by 23% to 270 mm. Comprehensive validation through pull‐out tests and robotic grasping experiments with objects ranging from 247 to 7500 g demonstrated the performance of the enhanced industrial gripper with 100% success rate. The enhanced gripper combines soft robotic adaptability with industrial reliability through passive compliance, enabling flexible manufacturing.

Advanced Robotics Research
Environment Park (IT), Université Laval (CA), University of Genoa (IT)
Industry, innovation and infrastructure
Openalex Percentile: Top 31%
Soft Robotics and Applications
AI Navigator

Ask Laika to Summarize, Analyze, and Connect papers live on the map.

Summarize Papers & Methodologies

Extract key findings, datasets, and comparative methods across publications.

Benchmark Rankings & Visual Analytics

Rank top research institutions, authors, funders, topics, and journals by Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) and paper volume with instant charts.

Connect Distant Disciplines

Bridge topological clusters on the map to find hidden collaborative intersections.