Recently, a research team from the Robotics Laboratoty at the Shenyang Institute of Automation (SIA), Chinese Academy of Sciences (SIA), has made new progress in the design and control of soft-rigid hybrid robots. They have proposed a soft-rigid coupled gripper system based on self-sensing Kresling origami actuators, offering a novel approach for designing multifunctional, highly integrated robotic systems.

Composition of the Soft-Rigid Coupled Gripper System Based on Self-Sensing Origami Actuators

(Image by the research group)

Adaptability Validation for Grasping Various Typical Objects (Image by the research group)

Utilizing the unique geometric properties of the origami structure, the system enables simultaneous fluid-driven and mechanically-driven actuation with only a single motor, significantly reducing system complexity. Additionally, the research team embedded a magnetic sensing system within the origami module and established a decoupled sensing model, achieving real-time high-precision proprioception of the actuator’s height and rotation angle. Furthermore, through an integrated electromagnetic locking mechanism, the soft-rigid coupled gripper can switch between a “compliant grasping mode” and a “large-load hybrid mode” within milliseconds.

The research team constructed an experimental platform to systematically evaluate the grasping performance and disturbance resistance of the soft-rigid coupled robot. Experimental results show that compared to the pure flexible mode, activating the hybrid mode with a rigid exoskeleton increased the fingertip output force by 311%, enabling stable grasping of heavy and large-load objects. Meanwhile, closed-loop control based on embedded sensing effectively enhances the system's adaptability in unstructured environments.

The above research findings have been published in the IEEE/ASME Transactions on Mechatronics, an international journal in the field of mechatronics, under the title A Soft-Rigid Coupled Gripper Driven by a Self-Sensing Origami Actuator for Compliant and Robust Grasping. Associate Researcher Daohui Zhang and Researcher Xingang Zhao are the corresponding authors. The study received support from projects such as the National Key Research and Development Program of China and the Major Research Plan of the National Natural Science Foundation of China.

Potential Future Application Scenarios in Polar Scientific Expeditions (Image by the research group)

The research aims to leverage the advantages of soft-rigid mode switching to address challenges in non-destructive handling of both rigid and flexible objects. The related technology is expected to find applications in future scenarios such as polar scientific expeditions.