We describe a simple passive universal gripper, consisting of a mass of granular material encased in an elastic membrane. Using a combination of positive and negative pressure, the gripper can rapidly grip and release a wide range of objects that are typically challenging for universal grippers, such as flat objects, soft objects, or objects with complex geometries. The gripper passively conforms to the shape of a target object, then vacuum-hardens to grip it rigidly, later utilizing positive pressure to reverse this transition-releasing the object and returning to a deformable state. We describe the mechanical design and implementation of this gripper and quantify its performance in real-world testing situations. By using both positive and negative pressure, we demonstrate performance increases of up to 85% in reliability, 25% in error tolerance, and the added capability to shoot objects by fast ejection. In addition, multiple objects are gripped and placed at once while maintaining their relative distance and orientation. We conclude by comparing the performance of the proposed gripper with others in the field.

A soft, mobile, morphing robot is a desirable platform for traversing rough terrain and navigating into small holes. In this work, a new paradigm in soft robots is presented that utilizes jamming of a granular medium. The concept of activators (as opposed to actuators) is presented to jam and unjam cells that then modulate the direction and amount of work done by a single central actuator. A prototype jamming soft robot utilizing JSEL (Jamming Skin Enabled Locomotion) with external power and control is discussed and both morphing results and mobility (rolling) results are presented. Future directions for the design of a soft, hole traversing robot are discussed, as is the role and promises of jamming as an enabling technology for soft robotics.