  Novel robotic grippers have captured increasing interests recently because of
their abilities to adapt to varieties of circumstances and their powerful
functionalities. Differing from traditional gripper with mechanical
components-made fingers, novel robotic grippers are typically made of novel
structures and materials, using a novel manufacturing process. In this paper, a
novel robotic gripper with external frame and internal thermoplastic elastomer
belt-made net is proposed. The gripper grasps objects using the friction
between the net and objects. It has the ability of adaptive gripping through
flexible contact surface. Stress simulation has been used to explore the
regularity between the normal stress on the net and the deformation of the net.
Experiments are conducted on a variety of objects to measure the force needed
to reliably grip and hold the object. Test results show that the gripper can
successfully grip objects with varying shape, dimensions, and textures. It is
promising that the gripper can be used for grasping fragile objects in the
industry or out in the field, and also grasping the marine organisms without
hurting them.
