Variable stiffness gripper based on 3D-printed PLA with Joule heating and magnetic actuation

Purpose This study aims to develop a variable stiffness actuator to overcome the limitations of traditional rigid robots in flexibility and the insufficient load capacity of fully soft robots, enabling adaptive and stable grasping of geometrically diverse objects. Design/methodology/approach A dual-jaw three-finger gripper was fabricated using 3D-printed polylactic acid (PLA), which exhibits thermally tunable stiffness. An embedded Joule heating structure, composed of enameled copper wire wound