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There are many examples in nature in which the ability to detect is combined with decision-making, such as the basic survival instinct of plants and animals to search for food. We can technically translate this innate function via the use of robotics with integrated sensors and artificial intelligence. However, the integration of sensing capabilities into robotics has traditionally been neglected due to the significant associated technical challenges. Inspired by plant-root chemotropism, we present a miniaturized electrochemical array integrated into a robotic tip, embedding a customized micro-potentiometer. The system contains solid-state sensors fitted to the tip of the robotic root to three-dimensionally monitor potassium and pH changes in a moist, soil-like environment, providing an integrated electronic readout. The sensors measure a range of parameters compatible with realistic soil conditions. The sensors' response can trigger the movement of the robotic root with a control algorithm inspired by the behavior of the plant root that determines the optimal path toward root growth, simulating the decision-making process of a plant. This nature-inspired technology may lead, in the future, to the realization of robotic devices with the potential for monitoring and exploring the soil autonomously.

Biomimetic machines able to integrate with natural and social environments will find ubiquitous applications, from biodiversity conservation to elderly daily care. Although artificial actuators have reached the contraction performances of muscles, the versatility and grace of the movements realized by the complex arrangements of muscles remain largely unmatched. Here, we present a class of pneumatic artificial muscles, named GeometRy-based Actuators that Contract and Elongate (GRACE). The GRACEs consist of a single-material pleated membrane and do not need any strain-limiting elements. They can contract and extend by design, as described by a mathematical model, and can be realized at different dimensional scales and with different materials and mechanical performances, enabling a wide range of lifelike movements. The GRACEs can be fabricated through low-cost additive manufacturing and even built directly within functional devices, such as a pneumatic artificial hand that is fully three-dimensionally printed in one step. This makes the prototyping and fabrication of pneumatic artificial muscle-based devices faster and more straightforward.

Organisms like the octopus or the clingfish are a precious source of inspiration for the design of innovative adhesive systems based on suction cups, but a complete mechanical description of their attachment process is still lacking. In this paper, we exploit the recent discovery of the presence of hairs in the acetabulum roof of octopus suction cups to revise the current model for its adhesion to the acetabulum wall. We show how this additional feature, which can be considered an example of a hierarchical structure, can lead to an increase of adhesive strength, based on the analysis of the cases of a simple tape and an axisymmetrical membrane adhering to a substrate. Using peeling theory, we discuss in both cases the influence of hierarchical structure and the resulting variation of geometry on the adhesive energy, highlighting how an increase in number of hierarchical levels contributes to its increment, with a corresponding improvement in functionality for the octopus suckers.

Bioinspired and biohybrid robots can help respond to diverse, sustainable application needs., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)

Living systems such as cells and tissues are extremely sensitive to their surrounding physico-chemical microenvironment. In the field of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering, the maintenance of culture conditions suitable for the formation of proliferation niches, for the self-renewal maintenance of stem cells, or for the promotion of a particular differentiation fate is an important issue that has been addressed using different strategies. A number of investigations suggests that a particular cell behavior can be in vitro resembled by mimicking the corresponding in vivo conditions. In this context, several biomimetic environments have been designed in order to control cell phenotypes and functions. In this review, we will analyze the most recent examples of the control of the in vitro physical micro/nano-environment by exploiting an innovative technique of high resolution 3D photolithography, the two-photon polymerization (2pp). The biomedical applications of this versatile and disruptive computer assisted design/manufacturing technology are very wide, and range from the fabrication of biomimetic and nanostructured scaffolds for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine, to the microfabrication of biomedical devices, like ossicular replacement prosthesis and microneedles.

A soft tactile sensor able to detect both normal and tangential forces is fabricated with a simple method using conductive textile. Owing to the multi-layered architecture, the capacitive-based tactile sensor is highly sensitive (less than 10 mg and 8 μm, for minimal detectable weight and displacement, respectively) within a wide normal force range (potentially up to 27 N (400 kPa)) and natural touch-like tangential force ranges (from about 0.5 N to 1.8 N). Being flexible, soft, and low cost, this sensor represents an original approach in the emulation of natural touch., (© 2014 The Authors. Published by WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.)

Moving in an unstructured environment such as soil requires approaches that are constrained by the physics of this complex medium and can ensure energy efficiency and minimize friction while exploring and searching. Among living organisms, plants are the most efficient at soil exploration, and their roots show remarkable abilities that can be exploited in artificial systems. Energy efficiency and friction reduction are assured by a growth process wherein new cells are added at the root apex by mitosis while mature cells of the root remain stationary and in contact with the soil. We propose a new concept of root-like growing robots that is inspired by these plant root features. The device penetrates soil and develops its own structure using an additive layering technique: each layer of new material is deposited adjacent to the tip of the device. This deposition produces both a motive force at the tip and a hollow tubular structure that extends to the surface of the soil and is strongly anchored to the soil. The addition of material at the tip area facilitates soil penetration by omitting peripheral friction and thus decreasing the energy consumption down to 70% comparing with penetration by pushing into the soil from the base of the penetration system. The tubular structure provides a path for delivering materials and energy to the tip of the system and for collecting information for exploratory tasks.

The quest for swimming microrobots originates from possible applications in medicine, especially involving navigation in bodily fluids. Swimming microorganisms have become a source of inspiration because their propulsion mechanisms are effective in the low-Reynolds number regime. In this study, we address a propulsion mechanism inspired by metachronal waves, i.e. the spontaneous coordination of cilia leading to the fast swimming of ciliates. We analyse the biological mechanism (referring to its particular embodiment in Paramecium caudatum), and we investigate the contribution of its main features to the swimming performance, through a three-dimensional finite-elements model, in order to develop a simplified, yet effective artificial design. We propose a bioinspired propulsion mechanism for a swimming microrobot based on a continuous cylindrical electroactive surface exhibiting perpendicular wave deformations travelling longitudinally along its main axis. The simplified propulsion mechanism is conceived specifically for microrobots that embed a micro-actuation system capable of executing the bioinspired propulsion (self-propelled microrobots). Among the available electroactive polymers, we select polypyrrole as the possible actuation material and we assess it for this particular embodiment. The results are used to appoint target performance specifications for the development of improved or new electroactive materials to attain metachronal-waves-like propulsion.

The present paper aims at understanding the biomechanics of an octopus tentacle as preliminary work for designing and developing a new robotic octopus tentacle. The biomechanical characterization of the biological material has been carried out on samples of Octopus vulgaris tentacles with engineering methods and tools, i.e. by biomechanical measurements of the tentacle elasticity and tension-compression stress/stretch curves. Another part of the activities has been devoted to the study of materials that can reproduce the viscoelastic behavior of the tentacle. The work presented here is part of the ongoing study and analysis on new design principles for actuation, sensing, and manipulation control, for robots with increased performance, in terms of dexterity, control, flexibility, applicability.

The emergence of the field of soft robotics has led to an interest in suction cups as auxiliary structures on soft continuum arms to support the execution of manipulation tasks. This application poses demanding requirements on suction cups with respect to sensorization, adhesion under non‐ideal contact conditions, and integration into fully soft systems. The octopus can serve as an important source of inspiration for addressing these challenges. This review aims to accelerate research in octopus‐inspired suction cups by providing a detailed analysis of the octopus sucker, determining meaningful performance metrics for suction cups on the basis of this analysis, and evaluating the state‐of‐the‐art in suction cups according to these performance metrics. In total, 47 records describing suction cups are found, classified according to the deployed actuation method, and evaluated on performance metrics reflecting the level of sensorization, adhesion, and integration. Despite significant advances in recent years, the octopus sucker outperforms all suction cups on all performance metrics. The realization of high resolution tactile sensing in suction cups and the integration of such sensorized suction cups in soft continuum structures are identified as two major hurdles toward the realization of octopus‐inspired manipulation strategies in soft continuum robot arms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Salvinia leaves represent an extraordinary example of how nature found a strategy for the long term retainment of air, and thus oxygen, on a surface, the so-called 'Salvinia effect', thanks to the peculiar three-dimensional and hierarchical shape of the hairs covering the leaves. Here, starting from the natural model, we have microfabricated hairs inspired by those present on the Salvinia molesta leaves, by means of direct laser lithography. Artificial hairs, like their natural counterpart, are composed of a stalk and a crown-like head, and have been reproduced in the microscale since this ensures, if using a proper design, an air-retaining behavior even if the bulk structural material is hydrophilic. We have investigated the capability of air retainment inside the heads of the hairs that can last up to 100 h, demonstrating the stability of the phenomenon. For a given dimension of the head, the greater the number of filaments, the greater the amount of air that can be trapped inside the heads since the increase in the number of solid-air interfaces able to pin the liquid phase. For this reason, such type of pattern could be used for the fabrication of surfaces for controlled gas retainment and gas release in liquid phases. The range of applications would be quite large, including industrial, medical, and biological fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Osmotic actuation is a ubiquitous plant-inspired actuation strategy that has a very low power consumption but is capable of generating effective movements in a wide variety of environmental conditions. In light of these features, we aimed to develop a novel, low-power-consumption actuator that is capable of generating suitable forces during a characteristic actuation time on the order of a few minutes. Based on the analysis of plant movements and on osmotic actuation modeling, we designed and fabricated a forward osmosis-based actuator with a typical size of 10 mm and a characteristic time of 2–5 minutes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the fastest osmotic actuator developed so far. Moreover, the achieved timescale can be compared to that of a typical plant cell, thanks to the integrated strategy that we pursued by concurrently addressing and solving design and material issues, as paradigmatically explained by the bioinspired approach. Our osmotic actuator produces forces above 20 N, while containing the power consumption (on the order of 1 mW). Furthermore, based on the agreement between model predictions and experimental observations, we also discuss the actuator performance (including power consumption, maximum force, energy density and thermodynamic efficiency) in relation to existing actuation technologies. In light of the achievements of the present study, the proposed osmotic actuator holds potential for effective exploitation in bioinspired robotics systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The octopus sucker represents a fascinating natural system performing adhesion on different terrains and substrates. Octopuses use suckers to anchor the body to the substrate or to grasp, investigate and manipulate objects, just to mention a few of their functions. Our study focuses on the morphology and adhesion mechanism of suckers in Octopus vulgaris. We use three different techniques (MRI, ultrasonography, and histology) and a 3D reconstruction approach to contribute knowledge on both morphology and functionality of the sucker structure in O. vulgaris. The results of our investigation are two-fold. First, we observe some morphological differences with respect to the octopus species previously studied (i.e., Octopus joubini, Octopus maya, Octopus bimaculoides/bimaculatus and Eledone cirrosa). In particular, in O. vulgaris the acetabular chamber, that is a hollow spherical cavity in other octopuses, shows an ellipsoidal cavity which roof has an important protuberance with surface roughness. Second, based on our findings, we propose a hypothesis on the sucker adhesion mechanism in O. vulgaris. We hypothesize that the process of continuous adhesion is achieved by sealing the orifice between acetabulum and infundibulum portions via the acetabular protuberance. We suggest this to take place while the infundibular part achieves a completely flat shape; and, by sustaining adhesion through preservation of sucker configuration. In vivo ultrasonographic recordings support our proposed adhesion model by showing the sucker in action. Such an underlying physical mechanism offers innovative potential cues for developing bioinspired artificial adhesion systems. Furthermore, we think that it could possibly represent a useful approach in order to investigate any potential difference in the ecology and in the performance of adhesion by different species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]