An Overview of Robotic Grippers

The development of robotic grippers is driven by the need to execute particular manual tasks or meet specific objectives in handling operations. Grippers with specific functions vary from being small, accurate and highly controllable such as the surgical tool effectors of the Da Vinci robot (designed to be used as non-invasive grippers controlled by a human operator during keyhole surgeries) to larger, highly controllable grippers like the Shadow Dexterous Hand (designed to recreate the hand motions of a human). Additionally, there are less finely controllable grippers, such as the iRobot-Harvard-Yale (iHY) Hand or Istituto Italiano di Tecnoglia-Pisa (IIT-Pisa) Softhand, which instead leverage natural motions during grasping via designs inspired by observed bio-mechanical systems. As robotic systems become more autonomous and widely used, it is becoming increasingly important to consider the design, form and function of robotic grippers.