Magic-ball Soft Gripper

The origami “magic-ball”  is a well-established origami design. It is folded from a rectangular piece of paper pre-creased with a repeating waterbomb pattern that is offset by a half-unit on every new row. The waterbomb pattern features a square with folds along its diagonals and a vertical axis of radial symmetry. This “magic-ball” structure can be reversibly changed between a spherical shape and a cylindrical shape, therefore it has been utilized previously in the development of morphing robots 

The gripper-to mount connector is surrounded with silicone skin. When the gripper closes in on an object, a vacuum collapses the silicone around it, effectively grasping the item without crushing it—and it’s capable of doing so for objects that are up to a hundred times its own weight. 

The origami “magic-ball” can exhibit a significant  radialcontraction with a volume reduction of more than 90% [30].Furthermore, if one end of the origami “magic-ball” is fixedand  closed,  then  the  other  end  can  be  opened  to  form  ahollow  hemispherical  shape

Read the article about this project here.