A Gripper System With Soft Dielectric Elastomer Functional Units for Actuation, Sensing, and Signal Processing
Junhao Ni, Moritz Scharff, Katherine Wilson, Hui Zhi Beh, Andreas Tairych, Andreas Richter, Iain Anderson, Gerald Gerlach
Abstract
This paper presents a soft gripper system in which actuation, sensing, and signal processing are all realized using soft dielectric elastomer (DE) devices. The platform integrates three functional units: a multilayer dielectric elastomer actuator (DEA) module that drives a compliant two-finger gripper, two tactile sensors mounted on the fingertips for contact detection and coarse shape recognition, and a dielectric elastomer switch (DES) that enables soft electronics control. The DEA module consists of eight parallel multilayer actuators, each comprising four active layers and a nonlinear biasing spring to amplify stroke, and is powered by an embedded high-voltage supply operated at 3 kV. The DES operates by mechanically modulating the resistance of a stretchable piezoresistive electrode, providing reliable switching behavior under high voltage. Grasping tests demonstrate that the system achieves a maximum opening angle of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex-math notation="LaTeX">$38^{\circ }$</tex-math></inline-formula> and can safely manipulate delicate objects, including cherries and eggs, without damage. These results demonstrate the feasibility of advancing toward fully soft robotic systems by integrating DE-based components for actuation, sensing, and signal processing.
BibTeX
@inproceedings{ral2026_agrippersystemwi,
title = {A Gripper System With Soft Dielectric Elastomer Functional Units for Actuation, Sensing, and Signal Processing},
author = {Junhao Ni and Moritz Scharff and Katherine Wilson and Hui Zhi Beh and Andreas Tairych and Andreas Richter and Iain Anderson and Gerald Gerlach and E.-F. Markus Vorrath},
booktitle = {RA-L 2026},
year = {2026}
}