Octopus-Inspired Soft Hydrogel Robots

Overview

We are working to create a framework for design, rapid prototyping and control of robust, energy-efficient, autonomous soft arms with octopus-inspired distributed neuromuscular sensing and actuation. The arms will be capable of continuous deformation through the use of hydrogel “muscles” and distributed sensing through the use of embedded silver “neuron” interconnections. Such a unique octopus-inspired design forms a built-in local “sensing-actuation” feedback loop to achieve adaptive reconfiguration in response to the local environment. Such local adaptation will enable the robot to perform high-level tasks such as locomotion and reversible adhesion without coordination from a central controller in a highly accurate, rapid, and energy-efficient way. This study will also produce fundamental principles and theory for the modeling and control of soft robots in a way which leverages their unique capabilities and is inspired by how cephalopod appendages interact with their environment.

Design and Fabrication:

Students

Roozbeh Khodambashi

Simulation of Hydrogel-based robots

Students

Cole Brauer, Jude Brauer, Charles Jeffries

Journal Papers

Conference Papers and Presentations

Patents and Patent Applications

Funding

This project was funded in part by the Office of Naval Research Award N00014-17-1-2117.

Videos

Dynamic Modeling of a Hydrogel-based Continuum Robotic Arm with Experimental Validation
Heterogeneous Hydrogel Structures with Spatiotemporal Reconfigurability using Addressable and Tunable Voxels
Automated Generation of Multi-Material Structures Using the VoxelFuse Framework - SCF20