A Soft–Rigid Coupled Gripper Driven by a Self-Sensing Origami Actuator for Compliant and Robust Grasping

Conventional soft–rigid coupled grippers typically rely on multiple actuators for compliant, high-force manipulation, which increases mechanical complexity. To overcome these limitations, this article presents a soft–rigid coupled gripper driven by a single self-sensing Kresling origami actuator. This actuator provides both volume output for the soft finger and linear displacement for the exoskeleton within a single structure. By embedding magnetic sensors into the origami module and developing a decoupled physical sensing model, we achieve precise, real-time monitoring of the rotation angle and height, with average measurement errors below 0.5% and 1.2%, respectively. This enables closed-loop control of finger motion, as well as the detection and adaptive compensation of external disturbances. Furthermore, an electromagnetic locking mechanism enables rapid switching between a compliant soft mode and a robust hybrid mode, supporting versatile manipulation strategies. Experimental results show that, compared with the soft mode, the hybrid mode increases fingertip blocked and pull-off forces by 311% and 256%, respectively. This dual-mode operation, enabled by the lock, directly enhances the gripper's adaptability and functionality. These results demonstrate the practicality of the proposed soft–rigid coupled gripper, which integrates multifunctional actuation and embedded sensing, for advanced manipulation.