Design and Fabrication of a Pneumatic Soft Robot Gripper Using Hyper-Flexible Silicone

The purpose of this study is to develop and manufacture molds for the purpose of casting a soft robotic gripper out of hyper-flexible silicone (Ecoflex 00.30). The gripper has three silicone fingers that are powered by an integrated pneumatic system that expands the walls of internal air chambers to create bending torque. A single gripper finger was empirically modelled and simulated using 12 KPa of pressure in order to validate the concept. The simulation results were in good agreement with the results of the practical tests, showing that the gripper could successfully grasp objects of different sizes and forms, including large and thin objects weighing up to 260 g. With the help of readily available, hyper-flexible silicone, this work illustrates how to fabricate soft pneumatic grippers quickly and iteratively for soft robotic systems.