Design concept and validation of a robotic arm inspired by the octopus

The octopus is an invertebrate sea animal, considered as an interesting model of inspiration in robotics, due to its high dexterity, variable stiffness, and very complex behaviours, if compared with its position in the evolutionary scale. This paper reports the design of an artificial muscular hydrostat for developing an octopus-like robot. The experimental study consists of the fabrication of a set of mock-ups demonstrating some of the key features and patterns of movement of the octopus arm. The experimental trials performed with the different mock-ups demonstrated the suitability of the silicone materials used and the patterns of actuators activation to replicate the typical octopus movements of elongation, shortening, bending, and reaching. They also confirm that control is simplified by the arrangement of muscles as well as by the mechanical properties of the muscular hydrostat. (C) 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.