A soft robotic gripper developed by researchers at MIT and Harvard paired a foldable skeleton with an airtight covering and connector. Applying vacuum made its hollow, cone-shaped structure collapse around an object. The team reported using it with a standard robot to pick up delicate foods without damage and lift bottles weighing more than four pounds. This was a research prototype described on March 15, 2019, not a commercial product or deployment. [shared-0ba47d2f39d74a07cce949e6b992125a3b2d025086923aba4ad4d6f6e17894e7]
The design addresses a real constraint in handling: rigid robotic fingers can struggle when objects vary in shape or placement, while softer grippers may lack strength. A single device able to manage both fragile and heavier items could give automation designers more flexibility. But the prototype worked best on cylindrical objects such as bottles and cans; flat items, including books and sandwiches, were harder to grasp. The researchers identified computer vision for judging orientation and selecting grasp points as future work, not a solved capability. That leaves a practical question for factories and other users: how much setup and human intervention would a flexible gripper still require across a mixed stream of goods? Broader object handling is promising, but this report does not establish reliability or readiness for routine use. [shared-0ba47d2f39d74a07cce949e6b992125a3b2d025086923aba4ad4d6f6e17894e7]