Multimedia Gallery

Sea Inspired Robot Arms

If you've ever tried to pick up a stuffed animal in a coin-operated claw game, you know the robot grabber can be clumsy and awkward to control. But what if the claw was modeled on the stuffed octopus you tried to pick up? Are more arms better? We'll explore how these creatures of the sea inspire the next generation of robotics in the U.S. National Science Foundation's "Discovery Files."

In both biological and engineered mechanisms, precise planning and sensitive gripping must interact to allow for grasping or handling of an object to occur. A challenge in designing robots to grab something are the sensors and planning needed to target objects with complex geometries and pick them up.

NSF-supported engineers at Harvard University are working on a new soft robotic system that can handle complex objects by using entanglement grasping. Utilizing an array of pneumatically actuated filaments on the size scale of the targeted object, these tentacles can grasp and securely hold heavy and odd shaped objects.

The system doesn't require sensing, planning, or feedback control, saving a massive amount of computational and machine learning resources. And can adjust to pick up soft and fragile objects.

Potential real-world applications include agricultural production & distribution, the handling of delicate tissues in medical settings, the handling of irregular objects such as glassware in warehouses or use in the sea handling endangered coral or recovering priceless artifacts from a sunken ship.

To hear more science and engineering news, including the researchers making it, subscribe to "NSF's Discovery Files" podcast.

Images and other media in the National Science Foundation Multimedia Gallery are available for use in print and electronic material by NSF employees, members of the media, university staff, teachers and the general public. All media in the gallery are intended for personal, educational and nonprofit/non-commercial use only.

Images credited to the National Science Foundation, a federal agency, are in the public domain. The images were created by employees of the United States Government as part of their official duties or prepared by contractors as "works for hire" for NSF. You may freely use NSF-credited images and, at your discretion, credit NSF with a "Courtesy: National Science Foundation" notation.

Additional information about general usage can be found in Conditions.