In nature, manipulators have evolved into different morphologies with varying rigidity to accomplish different tasks. Soft and continuum tentacles of the octopus, rigid and strong pincers of the crab and ligamentous jointed fingers of the human demonstrate the relationship between the complexity of a host’s task space and the design of its manipulator. Thus, the purpose of use a robotic manipulator should be considered as an important design parameter which governs the choice of appropriate materials and design rules. For tasks which require delicacy and strength at the same time, such as human-machine interaction, agriculture or robotic surgery hybrid soft-rigid manipulator designs should be investigated. Here, we present four design principles for building hybrid robot manipulators which incorporate soft and rigid materials and demonstrate each principle with working examples. © Springer International Publishing AG 2017.