A compliant adaptive robot grasper, comprising: a multi-bar finger linkage, including: a) a fingertip link; b) at least one base link at an opposite end of the linkage from the fingertip link, wherein the base link includes a mounting structure; and c) a front link and a rear link joined with the fingertip link at a first set of respective joints and joined with the base link at a second set of respective joints, wherein linear connections between the joints form a shape substantially in the form of a parallelogram allowing the linear connections across the front and rear links to remain substantially parallel to one another as the front and rear links rotate about a rotation axis of the base link without substantially changing the orientation of the fingertip link relative to the front and rear links until and unless the multi-bar finger linkage contacts an external object, at which point the linear connections between the joints still form a parallelogram, though the front and rear links pivot at the first and second set of joints; and an actuator coupled with the base link to rotate the base link about its rotation axis and to rotate the front, rear, and fingertip links (18, 19, 16) about the rotation axis of the base link through their connections via the joints to the base link. a multi-bar finger linkage, including: a) a fingertip link; b) at least one base link at an opposite end of the linkage from the fingertip link, wherein the base link includes a mounting structure; and c) a front link and a rear link joined with the fingertip link at a first set of respective joints and joined with the base link at a second set of respective joints, wherein linear connections between the joints form a shape substantially in the form of a parallelogram allowing the linear connections across the front and rear links to remain substantially parallel to one another as the front and rear links rotate about a rotation axis of the base link without substantially changing the orientation of the fingertip link relative to the front and rear links until and unless the multi-bar finger linkage contacts an external object, at which point the linear connections between the joints still form a parallelogram, though the front and rear links pivot at the first and second set of joints; and a) a fingertip link; b) at least one base link at an opposite end of the linkage from the fingertip link, wherein the base link includes a mounting structure; and c) a front link and a rear link joined with the fingertip link at a first set of respective joints and joined with the base link at a second set of respective joints, wherein linear connections between the joints form a shape substantially in the form of a parallelogram allowing the linear connections across the front and rear links to remain substantially parallel to one another as the front and rear links rotate about a rotation axis of the base link without substantially changing the orientation of the fingertip link relative to the front and rear links until and unless the multi-bar finger linkage contacts an external object, at which point the linear connections between the joints still form a parallelogram, though the front and rear links pivot at the first and second set of joints; and an actuator coupled with the base link to rotate the base link about its rotation axis and to rotate the front, rear, and fingertip links (18, 19, 16) about the rotation axis of the base link through their connections via the joints to the base link.