Researchers have recently created and built an octopus-inspired robot called 'TentacleGripper' that can grip, hold, move, lift and manipulate objects that surround them. It is widely known that Octopuses are very intelligent. They can open anything that has a lid on, they can find ways to escape when they are trapped, even inside a box that only has one tiny hole. This is because of their incredible tentacles.
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Developed in SEAS and Beihang University
Researchers at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences or SEAS and Beihang University have developed a robotic arm that is based on the features and capabilities of an octopus Their creation can hold and move different items from small boxes and balls to a live crab.
Harvard Ph.D. graduate, Augst Domel said in a statement that their research is the first to calibrate the tapering angles and arms of an octopus, plus the functions of bending and suction which is also implemented in the robot, which actually enables for a single and small gripper to be used for an extensive wide range of items that could require the use of multiple grippers.
How is it controlled?
The team had first studied the tapering angle of an actual octopus arm and immediately chose a good design fo being and grabbing objects that would actually work the best for a soft robot. They started to try and mimic the general structure and distribution of the octopus suckers, though their design is very much simpler than its actual live counterpart. The vacuum-based biomimetic suckers can astonishingly attach to almost every object it is surrounded with.
The TentacleGripper consists of a structure that is silicone-based which can be controlled, by applying pressure for the arm to bend and using a vacuum that can activate the sucker. Also, by replacing the pressure and vacuum, the arm can now attach to any object, wrap around it, carry and release. Just like how a live octopus can do as well when compared.
The tentacle bends inwards as air is compressed to it and can also wrap around the item being gripped on in a very smooth way. Similar to its live and actual model, two rows of suction cups are put on the inside of the silicone tentacle, while the small suction cups are placed on the end of the gripper to work passively. All objects are gripped securely to the device.
While doing good progress on this created device, they have successfully tested the TentacleGripper on various objects which include plastic sheets, coffee mugs, some test tubes, eggs and even live crabs and due to the tapering mechanism, it has allowed the arm to squeeze into very tiny and small spaces and retrieve objects surrounding it.
