The work aims to solve theflipping problem offibrotic bamboo veneers and guarantee the completeness of bamboo veneers and the lightweight of grippers. A dedicated flipping manipulator was designed. A bamboo scrimber flipping gripper was used as the research object. An optimization design method based on the combination of NSGA Ⅱ and response surface methodology was proposed. A gripper model was established to conduct finite element analysis and design an optimized experimental plan. The gripper mass and maximum deformation were set as goals in the optimization. Constrained by allowable stress, and multi-objective optimization was performed to obtain the Pareto optimal solution set. The optimized design of the bamboo scrimber flipping grippers reduced the weight of a single gripper by 11.19%, achieving the goal of lightweight. The optimized and improved bamboo scrimber flipping grippers can achieve lightweight, reduce power consumption, and reduce damage to bamboo veneers while ensuring its reliable operation.