While pole beans and other twining plants use their touch-sensitive shoots to wrap themselves around supports like ropes and rods to grow upward, the UGA team's robot is designed to firmly but gently grasp objects as small as 1 millimeter in diameter. "We had tried different designs but we were not happy with the results, then I recalled the pole beans I grew in our garden few years ago," said Mable Fok, an associate professor and the study's lead author. "This plant can hold onto other plants or rope so tightly. So, I did some research on twining plants and thought it was a good design from nature for us to explore." In a new study published in the journal Optics Express, the researchers say their soft robotic spiral gripper offers several advantages over existing robotic devices. "Our robot's twining action only requires a single pneumatic control, which greatly simplifies its operation by eliminating the need for complex coordination between multiple pneumatic controls," said Fok. "Since we use a unique twining motion, the soft robotic gripper works well in confined areas and needs only a small operational space."