In conclusion, we would call our project a general success since we accomplished our initial goal while discovering some new methods along the way. Although we did endure quite a few setbacks and made some changes to the original design, we were successful. Some of the improvements we added to our original design were: sticky tape (originally intended to secure the arms but was also good at picking up light objects), magnets underneath the tape (for picking up metallic objects) and moving them from the edges to the middle, and using paper towels instead of regular paper for the non-stretchable layer of the gripper (much better for absorbing the ecoflex). We also found out that leftover ecoflex made for very useful can-openers. If a hole is poked into the gripper, then you can use barbed connectors to hold it more securely than just using the tube. Our gripper was generally better than the store-bought one because it could pick up metallic objects with ease.
One Improvement would be durability of the gripper. While the rest of the grabber reacher was durable, the final pneunet gripper we used only lasted a month before popping. Using another gripper design such as a fiber reinforced gripper could help this problem as well as finding a more durable material.