Everything-Grasping Gripper: A Universal Gripper with Synergistic Suction–Grasping Capabilities for Cross-Scale and Cross-State Manipulation

Abstract

Grasping objects across vastly different sizes and physical states—including both solids and liquids—with a single robotic gripper remain a fundamental challenge in soft robotics. We present the Everything-Grasping (EG) Gripper, a soft end-effector that synergistically integrates distributed surface suction with internal granular jamming, enabling cross-scale and cross-state manipulation without requiring airtight sealing at the contact interface with target objects. The EG Gripper can handle objects with surface areas ranging from submillimeter scale 0.2 mm² (glass bead) to over 62,000 mm² (A4-sized paper and woven bag), enabling manipulation of objects nearly 3500 $\times$ smaller and 88 $\times$ larger than its own contact area (approximated at 707 mm² for a 30 mm diameter base). We further introduce a tactile sensing framework that combines liquid detection and pressure-based suction feedback, enabling real-time differentiation between solid and liquid targets. Guided by the Tactile-Inferred Grasping Mode Selection algorithm, the gripper autonomously selects grasping modes based on distributed pressure and voltage signals. Experiments across diverse tasks—including underwater grasping, fragile object handling, and liquid capture—demonstrate robust and repeatable performance. To our knowledge, this is the first soft gripper to reliably grasp both solid and liquid objects across scales using a unified compliant architecture.