THIS PAPER DEALS WITH THE STUDY OF GRASPING NON- LINEAR ELASTIC AND LINEAR VISCOELASTIC MATERIALS AND MORE SPECIFICALLY THE DEFORMATIONS CAUSED DUE TO GRIPPING FORCES. A NEW CONCEPT HAS BEEN ENVISAGED TO REDUCE THE COMPUTATIONAL COST ON PARALLEL GRASPING PROCESSES AND A DISCRETE ELEMENT METHOD (DEM) MODEL HAS BEEN DEVELOPED FOR DEFORMATION ANALYSIS OF 2-D (EXPANDABLE TO 3-D) FLEXIBLE OBJECTS.
