Observed arrival · 2026-11-05
Kirigami’s grippers turn a pull into a grasp
It presents soft robotic grippers made by cutting a pattern into a thin sheet, then pulling the sheet so its flaps close around an object.
- For
- Robotics teams handling fragile or unstable objects
- Worth noticing
- The page reports lab-scale holding force of about 0.3–0.8 N; biocompatible films are a possibility, not a tested material.
Field notes
The mechanism starts as a laser-cut pattern in thin plastic: stretching the sheet makes its cut sections buckle outward, then close around an object. The page reports tests on PET and silicone, with lab-scale holding force around 0.3–0.8 N; an 8×3 array has picked and placed 24 objects in one motion. A magnet-driven version caught a falling object underwater in about 60 ms. The team says it is building prototypes and seeking feedback; biocompatible films remain untested.
Observed signals
Read the marks
Editorial observations of this landing page, not a rating.
One card from the complete issue