Hardware

Gripper

A gripper is the end effector a robot uses to grasp and hold objects, most commonly a two-finger parallel-jaw device, with alternatives including vacuum suction cups, three-finger centric grippers, soft pneumatic fingers, and multi-fingered anthropomorphic hands. Selection trades payload, object diversity, cycle speed, sensing, and cost; parallel jaws plus suction cover most industrial picking, while dexterous hands target in-hand manipulation. Standard research examples include the Robotiq 2F-85.

Why it matters for physical AI

The gripper defines a robot's action space at the point of contact, and most large manipulation datasets assume parallel jaws, an embodiment prior that shapes what today's foundation policies can and cannot transfer to.