Patterned and instrumented directional adhesives for enhanced gripping with industrial manipulators

Researchers in Dr. Cutkosky's laboratory have developed a gripper device that allows industrial robots to handle very soft or delicate objects. Effective handling of delicate objects remains a challenging problem in manufacturing. To address these challenges, Stanford researchers use gecko-inspired directional adhesives attached to an industrial robot gripper with a tactile sensor. With these enhancements, the robot uses a very low grasp force to sustain loads in any direction, avoids load dropping and slipping, and the load remains residue-free when the grip is released. This technology is applicable to robotic tasks with delicate or soft objects.