The very early inspiration for the current version of the gripper came in three pieces:

1) The ring gear and the planet carriers could be outfitted with fingers

2)The planet gears themselves could be the drivers for the fingers

3) From a previous two-jawed gripper, the strange triangular, pivoting-about-their-centre "fingers" could conform to different shapes by pivoting like windshield wipers do to conform to a windshield

The result is odd-looking, but can pickup virtually any shape, a wide range of sized objects, and grips from outside or inside a larger hollow object as needed.