Biomimetic Self-Reconfigurable Soft Gripper for Cross-Scale, Multi-Particle, and High-Load Multifunctional...

Soft robotic grippers, with their intrinsic compliance and dexterity, provide safer manipulation of soft and fragile items compared to traditional rigid ones. However, achieving high functional integration within a single soft gripper, particularly for cross-scale, multi-particle, and high-load manipulation, remains a major challenge. Here, a monolithically 3D-printed, rapeseed-flower-inspired self-reconfigurable soft gripper (SRSG) is presented, which can rapidly reconfigure its finger arrangement within ∼130 ms and achieves precise, reversible switching between diagonal and parallel configurations. The SRSG can be readily incorporated with detachable petal modules to alter the grasping workspace. Leveraging these capabilities enables a range of functions: rotating bulbs of varying diameters, picking fruits, grasping cross-scale objects ranging from 0.07 to 270 mm (grasping range ratio of ∼3857 times), lifting payloads up to 5.6 kg (∼106 times its own weight), and adaptively enveloping numerous fine particles, multiple live aquatic organisms, and fragile underwater targets. The fully soft, electronics-free SRSG establishes a self-reconfigurable grasping paradigm for robust operation in unstructured environments, and opens up new directions for soft robotic end-effectors.