An Octopus-Inspired Soft Pneumatic Robotic Arm
This paper addresses the design, development, control, and experimental evaluation of a soft robot arm whose actuation is inspired by the muscular structure of the octopus arm, one of the most agile biological manipulators. The robot arm is made of soft silicone and thus possesses enhanced complianc...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Biomimetics |
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| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2313-7673/9/12/773 |
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| author | Emmanouil Papadakis Dimitris P. Tsakiris Michael Sfakiotakis |
| author_facet | Emmanouil Papadakis Dimitris P. Tsakiris Michael Sfakiotakis |
| author_sort | Emmanouil Papadakis |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This paper addresses the design, development, control, and experimental evaluation of a soft robot arm whose actuation is inspired by the muscular structure of the octopus arm, one of the most agile biological manipulators. The robot arm is made of soft silicone and thus possesses enhanced compliance, which is beneficial in a variety of applications where the arm may come into contact with delicate features of its environment. The arm is composed of three elongated segments arranged in series, each one of which contains several pneumatically actuated chambers embedded in its silicone body, which may induce various types of deformations of the segment. By combining the segment deformations, and by imitating the antagonistic muscle group functionality of the octopus, the robot arm can bend in various directions, increase or decrease its length, as well as twist around its central axis. This is one of the few octopus-inspired soft robotic arms where twisting is replicated in its motion characteristics, thus greatly expanding the arm’s potential applications. We present the design process and the development steps of the soft arm, where the molding of two-part silicone of low hardness in 3d-printed molds is employed. In addition, we present the control methodology and the experimental evaluation of both a standalone segment and the entire three-segment arm. This experimental evaluation involves model-free closed-loop control schemes, exploiting visual feedback from a pair of external cameras in order to reconstruct in real time the shape of the soft arm and the pose of its tip. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-27e4de97dffb4bf0ac9cb7c56de33f25 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2313-7673 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Biomimetics |
| spelling | doaj-art-27e4de97dffb4bf0ac9cb7c56de33f252024-12-27T14:13:31ZengMDPI AGBiomimetics2313-76732024-12-0191277310.3390/biomimetics9120773An Octopus-Inspired Soft Pneumatic Robotic ArmEmmanouil Papadakis0Dimitris P. Tsakiris1Michael Sfakiotakis2Institute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology–Hellas, GR-70013 Heraklion, GreeceInstitute of Computer Science, Foundation for Research and Technology–Hellas, GR-70013 Heraklion, GreeceDepartment of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Hellenic Mediterranean University, GR-71410 Heraklion, GreeceThis paper addresses the design, development, control, and experimental evaluation of a soft robot arm whose actuation is inspired by the muscular structure of the octopus arm, one of the most agile biological manipulators. The robot arm is made of soft silicone and thus possesses enhanced compliance, which is beneficial in a variety of applications where the arm may come into contact with delicate features of its environment. The arm is composed of three elongated segments arranged in series, each one of which contains several pneumatically actuated chambers embedded in its silicone body, which may induce various types of deformations of the segment. By combining the segment deformations, and by imitating the antagonistic muscle group functionality of the octopus, the robot arm can bend in various directions, increase or decrease its length, as well as twist around its central axis. This is one of the few octopus-inspired soft robotic arms where twisting is replicated in its motion characteristics, thus greatly expanding the arm’s potential applications. We present the design process and the development steps of the soft arm, where the molding of two-part silicone of low hardness in 3d-printed molds is employed. In addition, we present the control methodology and the experimental evaluation of both a standalone segment and the entire three-segment arm. This experimental evaluation involves model-free closed-loop control schemes, exploiting visual feedback from a pair of external cameras in order to reconstruct in real time the shape of the soft arm and the pose of its tip.https://www.mdpi.com/2313-7673/9/12/773soft roboticsbiomimeticsbio-inspired robotsrobotic armpneumatic actuationrobot control |
| spellingShingle | Emmanouil Papadakis Dimitris P. Tsakiris Michael Sfakiotakis An Octopus-Inspired Soft Pneumatic Robotic Arm Biomimetics soft robotics biomimetics bio-inspired robots robotic arm pneumatic actuation robot control |
| title | An Octopus-Inspired Soft Pneumatic Robotic Arm |
| title_full | An Octopus-Inspired Soft Pneumatic Robotic Arm |
| title_fullStr | An Octopus-Inspired Soft Pneumatic Robotic Arm |
| title_full_unstemmed | An Octopus-Inspired Soft Pneumatic Robotic Arm |
| title_short | An Octopus-Inspired Soft Pneumatic Robotic Arm |
| title_sort | octopus inspired soft pneumatic robotic arm |
| topic | soft robotics biomimetics bio-inspired robots robotic arm pneumatic actuation robot control |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2313-7673/9/12/773 |
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