Barbara Webb develops a robotic gripper that mimics ants’ jaws

[31/03/25] Professor Barbara Webb led the research that developed a prototype ‘hairy robotic gripper’ that mimics ants’ hairy jaws in an attempt to make robotic systems much more effective at picking objects up and moving them around.

The prototype has been tested with excellent results. It improves the capability of current robotic handling systems with minimal increase in complexity or cost.

Ultimately benefitting consumers and communities as well as business and industry, this innovative, versatile gripper could potentially be deployed in:

environmental clean-up

retail operations

construction

the agriculture sector

home applications

other industries

Jaws of success

Despite their tiny brains, ants are excellent at building nests and carrying food. For instance, they use the hairs on their jaws not just to sense objects but also, the researchers have discovered, to mechanically stabilise their grasp.

This fresh insight has led to the new gripper.

In tests with 30 different household objects (including a cup and a pasta sauce jar), the addition of ‘hairs’ increased the prototype gripper’s grasp success rate from 64% to 90%.

Tiny insects, big lessons

Past development of robotic handling systems has focused on making them like the human hand and equipping them with technologies such as deep learning. The downside has been that these systems have been complex, costly to develop and very data intensive.

Based on the behaviour of the humble ant, the new gripper is much simpler.

An aluminium two-jawed parallel plate gripper is fitted internally with four rows of hairs made of thermoplastic polyurethane.

The ‘hairs’ are 20mm long and 1mm in diameter, protruding in a V-shape.

This means they surround circular objects, which are particularly difficult to grasp.

Unprecedented understanding

Inspired by the strength and delicacy with which ants move things, our prototype is just the first step. Having filmed ants in high resolution, we’ve recreated in 3D the precise sequence of actions as they pick up seeds and other objects. This has been little studied in the past.

Now we can see how their antennae, front legs and jaws combine to sense, manipulate, grasp and move objects. For instance, we’ve discovered how much ants rely on their front legs to get objects in position. This will inform further development of our technology.

This innovative robotic gripper, inspired by the remarkable strength and efficiency of ants, is a great example of cutting-edge engineering research leading to real-world benefits.
By mimicking the natural world, this new innovation has the potential to improve multiple sectors such as retail and environmental services, enhancing productivity and efficiency.

Deployable immediately

After some further testing for robustness, the researchers believe the gripper could be deployed immediately.

A key aim is to enable it to pick up unfamiliar objects in clutter, a particular need in environmental clean-up.

Among its multiple potential applications, the system could be incorporated into autonomous mobile robotic systems that don’t need to communicate with the cloud.

Partners and funders

The gripper has been developed by the University of Edinburgh, in a project that includes as partners the Scottish Environment Protection Agency, Ocado Group and Amazon Research.

The research underpinning this work has been funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).