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Due to their lack of deformability and control over compliance, it can be challenging for them to pick up objects that are too large or too small in size. In particular, compliant objects are vulnerable to the large grasping force. Therefore, it is crucial to be able to adjust the stiffness of the gripper materials. In this study, a soft gripper consisting of three artificial fingers is reported on. Each of the artificial fingers is made of a tri-layer polymer structure. An exterior layer, made of an ecoflex\u2013graphene composite is embedded with electric wires as a heating source, by applying direct-current potential. The Joule heat not only allows for deformation of the exterior layer, but also transfers heat to the middle layer of the thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) elastomer. As a result, the stiffness of the TPU layer can be adjusted using electro-thermal heating. Meanwhile, the third layer consists of a polydimethylsiloxane replica as a supporting layer with a gecko-inspired dry adhesive structure. By applying voltage through electric wires, the artificial fingers can bend and, thus, the soft gripper can hold the objects, with the help of the dry adhesive layer. Finally, objects like a shuttlecock, tennis ball and a glass beaker, can be picked up by the soft gripper. This research may provide an insight for the design and fabrication of soft robotic manipulators.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/biomimetics7040167","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,16]],"date-time":"2022-10-16T21:10:10Z","timestamp":1665954610000},"page":"167","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Soft Gripper with Electro-Thermally Driven Artificial Fingers Made of Tri-Layer Polymers and a Dry Adhesive Surface"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0666-8821","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Xiangmeng","family":"Li","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China"},{"name":"State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing Systems Engineering, Xi\u2019an Jiaotong University, Xi\u2019an 710049, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Qiangshengjie","family":"Shi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Huifen","family":"Wei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xiaodong","family":"Zhao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Zhe","family":"Tong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Xijing","family":"Zhu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Shanxi Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, North University of China, Taiyuan 030051, China"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,10,15]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2100165","DOI":"10.1002\/aisy.202100165","article-title":"Control Strategies for Soft Robot Systems","volume":"4","author":"Wang","year":"2022","journal-title":"Adv. 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