Octopus-Like Robot Uses Suction Cups to Grip Objects

Researchers from the University of Bristol have created a new octopus-inspired robot that uses a suction design to grip various objects, which the team said could be instrumental for industrial applications.

In their findings, the team demonstrated how they used a multi-layer soft structure and an artificial fluidic system to mimic the structure of biological suckers.

Current industrial solutions use ‘always-on’ pumps that use air to actively generate the suction. However, the team said these are noisy and waste energy. 

“The most important development is that we successfully demonstrated the effectiveness of the combination of mechanical conformation – the use of soft materials to conform to surface shape – and liquid seal, the spread of water onto the contacting surface for improving the suction adaptability on complex surfaces,” said Tianqi Yue, study author. “This may also be the secret behind biological organisms' ability to achieve adaptive suction,

“We believe the presented multi-scale adaptive suction mechanism is a powerful new adaptive suction strategy which may be instrumental in the development of versatile soft adhesion.”

The team said the findings have “great potential” for creating a next-generation robotic gripper capable of grasping various irregular objects.

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The team plans to build a more intelligent suction cup by embedding sensors into it to regulate its behavior.