• MIT & Stanford engineers create vine-inspired gripper that inflates, twists, and coils around objects. • Pressurized box launches long, soft tubes that grow like socks, forming a gentle sling-like grasp. • Demonstrated lifting heavy and fragile items-watermelon, glass vase-without damage or instability. • Capable of squeezing through tight spaces and pushing through clutter to reach targets. • Potential uses span agriculture, cargo handling, and eldercare, including safely lifting people from beds. • Future work focuses on refining soft robotic vines for real-world caregiving and logistics.
Article Summaries:
- MIT and Stanford researchers have created a vine‑inspired robotic gripper that can safely lift heavy and fragile items-such as a watermelon, a glass vase, and even a human-by inflating long, flexible tubes that snake around the target. The system uses a pressurized box to launch the tubes, which twist and coil around the object before being clamped and wound back up, forming a gentle sling‑like grasp. Demonstrations showed the robot can navigate tight spaces and handle delicate loads. The team, publishing in Science Advances, envisions applications in agriculture, cargo handling, and eldercare, where the gripper could ease the physically demanding task of lifting patients.
Sources: