You Have To See These Robots That Move Like Octopus Arms

Making a robot as flexible and precise as an octopus arm is a tough challenge – that’s obvious even if you’re that much into robotics. Not impossible, though. A group of researchers has recently developed a new class of soft robots inspired by nature’s design: the logarithmic spiral. These ‘SpiRobs’ use a super simple mechanism – just a couple of cables, to pull off lifelike movements and strong, stable grips. The best part is that, according to the team, they’re cheap and quick to make using 3D printing.

The team built numerous prototypes, from tiny grippers to 1-meter-long robots mounted on drones and even multi-robot arrays that can wrap around and grab stuff. Octopus arms and elephant trunks inspired the designs. Currently, the robots can adapt their grip to different objects, handling things over 100 times their size and lifting up to 260 times their weight. The whole project is another excellent example: if you can’t find inspiration, nature can always help you. 

The research was conducted by Zhanchi Wang, Nikolaos M. Freris, and Xi Wei. You can find the paper here. Previously, we shared a story on HOVER, a “versatile neural whole-body controller for humanoid robots.” Learn how the team trained the neural network with 1.5 million parameters.

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