An octopi inspired soft arm manipulator actuated by tendon-like string configurations

Octopi exhibit impressive manipulation abilities and adaptive intelligent behavior. By interpreting their biological structure and their motion generation strategy, a soft robotic continuum arm manipulator inspired by octopi, is presented in this paper. The proposed arm exploits the combination of soft silicone material offering high rates of flexibility and deformability, with rigid supportive disks mimicking the muscular hydrostats present in biological octopi. The arm is actuated by tendon-like string configurations, driving 5 motions in all 3 body planes: Lateral right and left motion in the sagittal plane, ventral and dorsal motion in the coronal plane and helical torsion motion in the transverse plane. By using the compliant body of the proposed arm mimicking the anatomical morphology of the octopi and the 5 motions generated by it, the arm can grasp, move and lift various objects, without previous sensing, and without the usage of suctions cups, making it a powerful low-complexity tool for object manipulation in complex environments.