Quantitative Measurements of Octopus vulgaris Arms for Bioinspired Soft Robotics

Abstract

Bioinspiration is a popular trend in robotics research. Bioinspired design needs a deep knowledge of the selected biological model in order to extract the key features relevant to the design of the robot system. The octopus is an ideal model for soft robotics and has served as inspiration for the development of octopus-like robots and robot arms. The muscular hydrostat that composes the octopus arms is one of the key principles to imitate from the octopus, as well as the arm suckers. An engineering analysis and measurements is required, especially to understand the dimensions of deformations, the stiffness variability, the forces applied, the working principles of reaching and adhesion. We developed methods for measuring the octopus arm in vivo and we measured elongation and shortening, pulling force, stiffening, and morphology, quantitatively. The resulting data were used to create novel design principles and specifications used in developing new soft robots.