This gripper robot looks like a faded flower, but it can lift 100 times its weight.

According to Daniela Rus, a professor at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL), if someone asked you to imagine a robot, you'd probably think of a robot-shaped robot. Man or a very resistant industrial robot arm. "But for me, I'd like to see a change," she says The edge.

The last work of his team at MIT is a perfect example. It is a gripper robot designed to pick up objects, but its appearance is unusual to say the least. Visually, he has more in common with a rubber tulip or a deflated balloon than with a science fiction robot.

It is this unique look that makes the gripper potentially useful. Under its rubber skin is an origami skeleton in the shape of a starfish. As the gas enters and leaves the sealed enclosure of the clamp, the entire device opens and closes like a flower.

The device is able to pick up delicate objects without hurting them, while maintaining enough grip to lift 100 times its own weight. "By combining this foldable skeleton with the soft exterior, we get the best of both worlds," Rus says. The edge. "I'm excited to use such a robot hand to start making groceries."

Soft robot grippers like this one are not new. Over the last ten years, the sector has grown considerably, with engineers seeking to take advantage of flexible machines. A case of natural use is logistics: picking items from warehouses and factories. Although much of this work has been automated, companies such as Amazon still use a lot of humans to manage individual items, to pack them into bags and boxes.

In fact, traditional robotic metal and hard plastic grippers resist delicate objects and irregular shapes. The old cliché of an uncontrollable killer robot chanting "crush, destroy" is not so far from here. Nowadays, your ordinary robot in a factory can not unpack your purchases without turning eggs into omelets and oranges into orange juice.

Photo: MIT CSAIL

The soft robotic forceps seem to be the best solution to this problem and in recent years have seen an explosion of this technology. Laboratories such as CSAIL as well as commercial companies such as RightHand Robotics have all taken part in the action, developing everything from hands of inflatable robots to grippers resembling bean bags to modules shaped like octopus tentacles.

Rus says that his new clamp is a better solution than any previous design. Thanks to its tulip shape, it can approach objects in terms of angles, as opposed to a hand-shaped gripper, which must generally come next to an object. Due to his origami skeleton, which Rus and his team started in 2017, he is both solid and supple.

Rus explains why such devices have not yet been adopted, because commercial solutions are not yet up to the "innovations that come out of the laboratory". Another reason could be institutional inertia. Once companies have invested in expensive equipment, replacing them is no longer an easy decision, especially if updating your hardware can lead to a reorganization of your entire production line.

There is no doubt that the field of soft robotics continues to spit bizarre and potentially useful creations. And if Rus and his colleagues succeed, it will not be long before our mental image of what a robot looks like changes for good. "This is a first, to our knowledge, to create a robot hand that can do such a useful job," says Rus.