Towards a variable compliance hydrostatic skeleton inspired gripper

Variable compliance is a subject of great interest in the robotics community, particularly in the area of Human-Robot interaction. In this work, variable compliance is achieved in a novel grasping device inspired by the hydrostatic skeletons of invertebrates. This is accomplished passively, relying on material properties and innovative prototype design. The design will be described and its behavior evaluated through a series of experiments. It will also be shown that a prototype with a very simple design is able to grasp the object with little active control.