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upstart writes:

Kirigami robotic grippers are delicate enough to lift egg yolks:

Engineering researchers from North Carolina State University have demonstrated a new type of flexible, robotic grippers that are able to lift delicate egg yolks without breaking them, and that are precise enough to lift a human hair. The work has applications for both soft robotics and biomedical technologies.

The work draws on the art of kirigami[*], which involves both cutting and folding two-dimensional (2D) sheets of material to form three-dimensional (3D) shapes. Specifically, the researchers have developed a new technique that involves using kirigami to convert 2D sheets into curved 3D structures by cutting parallel slits across much of the material. The final shape of the 3D structure is determined in large part by the outer boundary of the material. For example, a 2D material that has a circular boundary would form a spherical 3D shape.

"We have defined and demonstrated a model that allows users to work backwards," says Yaoye Hong, first author of a paper on the work and a Ph.D. student at NC State. "If users know what sort of curved, 3D structure they need, they can use our approach to determine the boundary shape and pattern of slits they need to use in the 2D material. And additional control of the final structure is made possible by controlling the direction in which the material is pushed or pulled."

"Our technique is quite a bit simpler than previous techniques for converting 2D materials into curved 3D structures, and it allows designers to create a wide variety of customized structures from 2D materials," says Jie Yin, corresponding author of the paper and an associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at NC State.

The researchers demonstrated the utility of their technique by creating grippers capable of grabbing and lifting objects ranging from egg yolks to a human hair.

[*] Kirigami on Wikipedia.

Journal Reference:
Yong Zhu, Yinding Chi, Shuang Wu, Yanbin Li. Boundary curvature guided programmable shape-morphing kirigami sheets [open], Nature Communications (DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28187-x)

Original Submission