US Patent 9975251 Soft robotic actuators for positioning, packaging, and assembling

Exemplary embodiments relate to applications for soft robotic actuators in the manufacturing, packaging, and food preparation industries, among others. Methods and systems are disclosed for packaging target objects using soft robotic actuators, for moving and positioning target objects and/or receptacles, and/or for diverting or sorting objects. By using soft robotic actuators to perform the fixing, positioning, and/or diverting, objects of different sizes and configurations may be manipulated on the same processing line, without the need to reconfigure the line or install new hardware when a new object is received.