Soft grippers, which are built from flexible materials that can bend and deform, are attracting a lot of attention from robotics researchers worldwide. Unlike conventional robots made from rigid metal or plastic, soft grippers can grasp items more gently while naturally adapting to different shapes. This makes them uniquely suitable for delicate tasks such as handling fruit, baked goods, lab samples, and medical supplies.
However, grasping objects is only part of what robots need to do. To manipulate objects as skillfully as humans, robots also need a sense of touch; they need feedback on where contact is happening, how much force is being applied, what shape the object has, and even the position of the gripper's own fingers. The main challenge lies in the fact that the same flexibility that makes soft grippers useful also makes it difficult to equip them with sensors. Because soft gripper materials constantly bend and stretch, conventional sensors are hard to integrate without limiting the gripper's flexibility or only covering small areas. But what if we took a page from one of nature's most impressive grippers?
In a recent study published in the IEEE Transactions on Robotics journal on June 26, 2026, a research team led by Professor Van Anh Ho from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), Japan, developed EleTac, a soft robotic gripper inspired by the tip of the elephant's trunk. Their work describes an innovative design that combines object grasping with high-resolution tactile sensing and proprioception, which is the ability of a robot to sense the position and movement of its own body. Other members of the team included Associate Professor Shan Luo and doctoral student Xuyang Zhang from King's College London, U.K.; Dr. Tuan Tai Nguyen from JAIST; and Dr. Quan Khanh Luu from Purdue University, USA.
EleTac uses a pair of soft, pneumatically actuated fingers that gently close around objects. Instead of embedding numerous sensors throughout the gripper, the researchers equipped it with a single internal fisheye camera. This camera observes, from the inside, how the soft material deforms during grasping. The team trained several deep learning algorithms on the resulting images to extract many kinds of tactile information.
The team evaluated EleTac through a series of grasping and perception experiments. Using a simple control strategy, the gripper successfully handled a wide variety of objects, including fruit, tofu, fabric, tools, bolts, and even playing cards. They also tested EleTac in two particularly challenging scenarios: searching for and pulling out a pen buried in sand using touch alone, and wiping marker ink off curved tableware with a sponge. This second task required the gripper to adjust its motion based on how firmly it sensed the sponge pressing against each surface.
The researchers see EleTac's compact, lightweight, and low-cost design as one of its strongest practical advantages. "EleTac, fully covered with vision-based tactile skin, is suitable as a plug-and-play end-effector for existing robotic platforms and humanoid robots. For instance, the gripper shows promise for delicate tasks," remarks Prof. Ho.
Beyond near-term applications in business and industrial settings, EleTac also represents a step towards the widespread adoption of service robots. "With the ability to detect contact and apply gentle forces, soft robots may be able to assist with everyday tasks, support elderly or vulnerable individuals, and perform operations that are difficult for today's rigid robotic systems. We envision safer and more capable robots that can work alongside people in homes, hospitals, and public spaces in the near future," concludes Prof. Ho.
Reference
Title of original paper: EleTac: Elephant Trunk Tip-Inspired Soft Gripper with Vision-Based Tactile Sensing and Proprioception
Authors: Tuan Tai Nguyen, Xuyang Zhang, Quan Khanh Luu, Shan Luo, and Van Anh Ho
Journal: IEEE Transactions on Robotics
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TRO.2026.3706568
About Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Japan
Founded in 1990 in Ishikawa prefecture, the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) was the first independent national graduate university that has its own campus in Japan. Now, after 30 years of steady progress, JAIST has become one of Japan's top-ranking universities. JAIST strives to foster capable leaders with a state-of-the-art education system where diversity is key; about 40% of its alumni are international students. The university has a unique style of graduate education based on a carefully designed coursework-oriented curriculum to ensure that its students have a solid foundation on which to carry out cutting-edge research. JAIST also works closely both with local and overseas communities by promoting industry–academia collaborative research.
Website: https://www.jaist.ac.jp/english/
About Professor Van Anh Ho from Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Japan
Professor Van Anh Ho received a Master's degree in Mechanical Engineering and a Ph.D. degree in Robotics from Ritsumeikan University in 2009 and 2012, respectively. In 2017, he joined the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, where he currently leads a laboratory on soft robotics. His current research interests are soft robotics, soft haptic interaction, tactile sensing, grasping and manipulation, and bio-inspired robots. He has published over 90 papers on these topics. Prof. Ho is also a member of The Robotics Society of Japan (RSJ) and Senior Member of the IEEE.
