A Dexterous Soft Robotic Hand for Delicate In-Hand Manipulation

Soft robotic hands provide a robust means of performing basic primitives of in-hand manipulation in the presence of uncertainty. We built a soft robotic hand with dexterous soft fingers capable of moving objects within the hand using several basic motion primitives. We can then chain these primitives together to perform finger gaits, compensate for gravity, and move objects to desired poses within the hand, all while retaining the gentleness and safety inherent in soft robots! Dexterous soft hands have exciting potential for home-centric robots when performing activities of daily living such as setting a table, cooking dinner, or stocking a refrigerator. Check out the paper: Check out the Harvard Microrobotics Lab: