A magnetically steerable soft gripper for navigating and grasping in constrained spaces

Abstract

Magnetic soft grippers hold significant promise for applications requiring gentle and soft interaction with objects. However, steering their movement within constrained spaces remains a major challenge. This study presents a magnetically steerable soft gripper that combines a magnetically steerable soft tube with a magnetic soft gripper. By utilizing distinct magnetization directions for the soft gripper and soft tube, both steering and gripping can be achieved through an external magnetic field. The gripper is capable of lifting objects weighing more than 68 times its own weight under a 40 mT magnetic field (1.7 times per mT). It can also grasp objects of various shapes and sizes. When integrated with a commercial catheter, the steerable gripper successfully performs targeted gripping in a 3D phantom environment. This work introduces a novel magnetically steerable soft gripper system for precise manipulation in confined spaces, with strong potential for applications inside the human body. © The Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers and Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2026.