Cuttlefish tentacles and origami inspired a new robotic claw

Unlike their octopus cousins, a cuttlefish’s 10 tentacles are not necessarily the same size. While the small cephalopod has four pairs of equal length, its other two appendages extend and contract as needed to more easily capture their prey. And while a new robot designed by engineers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University in China won’t be going hunting anytime soon, its trio of pincers can grasp and manipulate a wide range of objects, much like their cuttlefish inspiration.

Detailed in a recent article published in Cyborg bionic systems, researchers combined pneumatic and cable-driven networks to independently control the stiffness and length of three tentacle-like “fingers.” Unlike similar gripping robots that rely on molded silicone, the engineers explained in their study that each finger uses thermoplastic urethane (TPU)-coated fabric and extremely thin sheets of metal. These can then form “hybrid soft and rigid origami chamber structures” that wrinkle depending on how long or short they need to grip an object.

In trial tests, the cuttlefish robot successfully picked up, held and maneuvered a variety of objects of very different sizes, shapes and weights, such as 0.1 mm thick fabric, an apple and a soccer ball. To customize the length and tension of each finger, the manipulators inflated the origami chambers with positive pneumatic pressure while creating “an antagonistic actuation system with the cables, making the finger’s stiffness adjustable via active control of the inlet pressure value,” the team writes.

(Related: Why robot makers are studying cuttlefish eyes.)

In the team’s June 3 announcement, the university explains that this type of customization and nuance of controls “is essential for tasks that require fine manipulation capabilities, such as assembling delicate components or navigation on cluttered or uneven surfaces.

Of course, the robotic gripper isn’t yet as nimble or adaptable as its cuttlefish inspiration. The engineers note in their paper that each origami chamber currently requires a “manual manufacturing process” and still requires human intervention to control it. In the future, engineers intend to optimize the manufacturing process and integrate real sensor systems to expand its potential utility and enable “more sophisticated human-robot interactions.”

This multifunctionality could make successive iterations extremely useful in manufacturing and medical facilities while handling many different types of objects, tools or construction parts. It’s unlikely that such origami cuttlefish robots will ever need to catch unsuspecting prey, but thanks to the art of folding and biological inspirations, they could provide a dexterity that many similar existing machines lack. Perhaps researchers will also find additional inspiration in the cephalopod’s effective camouflage and impressive eyesight.