Glowing Sucker Octopus (Stauroteuthis syrtensis)-Inspired Soft Robotic Gripper for Underwater Self-Adaptive Grasping and Sensing.

A soft gripper inspired by the glowing sucker octopus (Stauroteuthis syrtensis)' highly evolved grasping capability enabled by the umbrella-shaped dorsal and ventral membrane between each arm is presented here, comprising of a 3D-printed linkage mechanism used to actuate a modular mold silicone-casting soft suction disc to deform. The soft gripper grasp can lift objects using the suction generated by the pump in the soft disc. Moreover, the protruded funnel-shaped end of the deformed suctorial mouth can adapt to smooth and rough surfaces. Furthermore, when the gripper contacts the submerged target objects in a turbid environment, local suctorial mouth arrays on the suction disc are locked, causing the variable flow inside them, which can be detected as a tactile perception signal to the target objects instead of visual perception. Aided by the 3D-printed linkage mechanism, the soft gripper can grasp objects of different shapes and dimensions, including flat objects, objects beyond the grasping range, irregular objects, scattered objects, and a moving turtle. The results report the soft gripper's versatility and demonstrate the vast application potentials of self-adaptive grasping and sensing in various environments, including but are not limited to underwater, which is always a key challenge of grasping technology. © 2022 The Authors. Advanced Science published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.

Citation

Mingxin Wu, Xingwen Zheng, Ruosi Liu, Ningzhe Hou, Waqar Hussain Afridi, Rahdar Hussain Afridi, Xin Guo, Jianing Wu, Chen Wang, Guangming Xie. Glowing Sucker Octopus (Stauroteuthis syrtensis)-Inspired Soft Robotic Gripper for Underwater Self-Adaptive Grasping and Sensing. Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany). 2022 Jun;9(17):e2104382

Mesh Tags

PMID: 35388640

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