This paper presents a soft gripper featuring variable stiffness that enhances gripping forces while retainingadaptive gripping capabilities. The soft gripper finger was designed by employing a mechanical meta-structureto induce deformation in the transverse direction rather than that in the longitudinal direction of the finger.
Deformation in the transverse direction can effectively strengthen the finger, without compromising gripstability caused by changes in finger length. The developed soft gripper could increase the maximum grippingweight more than two times with varying stiffness while maintaining adaptive gripping performances.
Moreover, the stiffness of the finger can be partially increased with respect to gripping objects. It is expectedthat this research can contribute to extending the gripping performances of soft grippers.