Recent progress on underwater soft robots: adhesion, grabbing, actuating, and sensing

Yeming Zhang; Demin Kong; Yan Shi; Maolin Cai; Qihui Yu; Shuping Li; Kai Wang; Chuangchuang Liu

doi:10.3389/fbioe.2023.1196922

Recent progress on underwater soft robots: adhesion, grabbing, actuating, and sensing

Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2023 Aug 8:11:1196922. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2023.1196922. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Yeming Zhang¹, Demin Kong¹, Yan Shi², Maolin Cai², Qihui Yu³, Shuping Li¹, Kai Wang¹, Chuangchuang Liu¹

Affiliations

¹ School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Henan Polytechnic University, Jiaozuo, China.
² School of Automation Science and Electrical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, China.
³ School of Mechanical Engineering, Inner Mongolia University of Science and Technology, Baotou, China.

Abstract

The research on biomimetic robots, especially soft robots with flexible materials as the main structure, is constantly being explored. It integrates multi-disciplinary content, such as bionics, material science, mechatronics engineering, and control theory, and belongs to the cross-disciplinary field related to mechanical bionics and biological manufacturing. With the continuous development of various related disciplines, this area has become a hot research field. Particularly with the development of practical technologies such as 3D printing technology, shape memory alloy, piezoelectric materials, and hydrogels at the present stage, the functions and forms of soft robots are constantly being further developed, and a variety of new soft robots keep emerging. Soft robots, combined with their own materials or structural characteristics of large deformation, have almost unlimited degrees of freedom (DoF) compared with rigid robots, which also provide a more reliable structural basis for soft robots to adapt to the natural environment. Therefore, soft robots will have extremely strong adaptability in some special conditions. As a type of robot made of flexible materials, the changeable pose structure of soft robots is especially suitable for the large application environment of the ocean. Soft robots working underwater can better mimic the movement characteristics of marine life in the hope of achieving more complex underwater tasks. The main focus of this paper is to classify different types of underwater organisms according to their common motion modes, focusing on the achievements of some bionic mechanisms in different functional fields that have imitated various motion modes underwater in recent years (e.g., the underwater sucking glove, the underwater Gripper, and the self-powered soft robot). The development of various task types (e.g., grasping, adhesive, driving or swimming, and sensing functions) and mechanism realization forms of the underwater soft robot are described based on this article.

Keywords: bioinspired robotics; biomimetics; soft manipulator; soft robotics; underwater manipulation; underwater robot.

Publication types

Review

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Outstanding Young Scientists in Beijing (grant no. BJJWZYJH01201910006021); Open Foundation of the State Key Laboratory of Fluid Power and Mechatronic Systems (grant no. GZKF-202016); Henan Province Science and Technology Key Project (grant nos 202102210081 and 212102210050); Sub-project of Strengthening Key Basic Research Projects in the Basic Plan of the Science and Technology Commission of the Military Commission (2019-JCJQ-ZD-120-13); and Postgraduate education and teaching reform project of Henan Polytechnic University (2021YJ04).