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Multi-material Bio-inspired Soft Octopus Robot for Underwater Synchronous Swimming

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Abstract

Inspired by the simple yet amazing morphology of the Octopus, we propose the design, fabrication, and characterization of multi-material bio-inspired soft Octopus robot (Octobot). 3D printed molds for tentacles and head were used. The tentacles of the Octobot were casted using Ecoflex-0030 while head was fabricated using relatively flexible material, i.e., OOMOO-25. The head is attached to the functionally responsive tentacles (each tentacle is of 79.12 mm length and 7 void space diameter), whereas Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) muscle wires of 0.5 mm thickness are used in Octobot tentacles for dual thrust generation and actuation of Octobot. The tentacles were separated in two groups and were synchronously actuated. Each tentacle of the developed Octobot contains a pair of SMA muscles (SMA-α and SMA-β). SMA-α muscles being the main actuator, was powered by 9 V, 350 mA power supply, whereas SMA-β was used to provide back thrust and thus helps to increase the actuation frequency. Simulation work of the proposed model was performed in the SolidWorks environment to verify the vertical velocity using the octopus tentacle actuation. The design morphology of Octobot was optimized using simulation and TRACKER software by analyzing the experimental data of angle, displacement, and velocity of real octopus. The as-developed Octobot can swim at variable frequencies (0.5–2 Hz) with the average speed of 25 mm/s (0.5 BLS). Therefore, the proposed soft Octopus robot showed an excellent capability of mimicking the gait pattern of its natural counterpart.

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taken from the synchronous swimming experiment of Octobot; i–v) are showing the actuation of the first four tentacles of the Octobot (Group A) under applied PWM pulse, whereas, vi–x) are similarly showing the actuation of the Group B tentacles when the PWM pulse is stopped to Group A and applied to Group B. The sequential pictures taken at the fixed time step size

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Data availability statement

Data available on request from the authors.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Korea government (MSIT) (NRF-2022R1A2C2004771) and Internal Research Grant by ORIC, Sukkur IBA University 2022.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Jeju National University, Jeju, 63243, South Korea

    Faheem Ahmed, Afaque Manzoor Soomro, Suresh Kumar, Fida Hussain Memon & Kyung Hyun Choi

  2. Department of Electrical Engineering, Sukkur IBA University, Airport Road, Sukkur, 65200, Sindh, Pakistan

    Muhammad Waqas, Bushra Shaikh, Umair Khan & Afaque Manzoor Soomro

  3. Advanced Micro Mechatronics and Energy Lab, Sukkur IBA University, Sukkur, 65200, Pakistan

    Muhammad Waqas & Afaque Manzoor Soomro

  4. Department of Ocean Sciences, Jeju National University, Jeju, 63243, South Korea

    Hina Ashraf

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  1. Faheem Ahmed
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Correspondence to Muhammad Waqas, Afaque Manzoor Soomro or Kyung Hyun Choi.

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Ahmed, F., Waqas, M., Shaikh, B. et al. Multi-material Bio-inspired Soft Octopus Robot for Underwater Synchronous Swimming. J Bionic Eng 19, 1229–1241 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42235-022-00208-x

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