MELEGROS: Monolithic Elephant-inspired Gripper with Optical Sensors

A monolithic elephant-inspired gripper integrating optical sensing for contact-rich manipulation.

📄 Advanced Science (accepted, 2025)

Overview

MELEGROS is a monolithic, elephant-inspired soft gripper designed for robust grasping while providing optical sensing for contact-rich manipulation.

What I did

  • Designed the monolithic gripper morphology for stable grasps across object shapes
  • Integrated optical sensing and built the acquisition + processing pipeline
  • Characterized grasp behavior and sensing signatures across diverse objects

Key idea

Combine monolithic compliance with embedded optical sensing so the gripper can both adapt and measure interaction without complex assembly.

Citation

P. Trunin, D. Cafiso, A. B. Nardin, T. Exley†, L. Beccai.
MELEGROS: Monolithic Elephant-inspired Gripper with Optical Sensors.
Submitted to Advanced Science (2025). (accepted)