Octopus Predation-Inspired Underwater Robot Capable of Adsorption through Opening and Closing Claws

Abstract

Underwater unmanned robots are an essential tool for human underwater exploration and detection and are widely employed in a variety of underwater operational settings. One of the hottest issues in this field is applying bionic notions to the creation of underwater unmanned robots by simulating fish swimming or cephalopod crawling. Using the tentacle suction cup adsorption technique during octopus’ predation as a model, underwater magnetic adsorption robots with the opening and closing claws were studied in this paper. First, the robot’s general structural design is presented. The claw mechanism is demonstrated by mimicking the octopus’s tentacle action during feeding, which primarily consists of an opening and closing claw that replicates the octopus’s tentacle and a magnetic adsorption unit that replicates the octopus’s suction cup adsorption. Then, the Kriging response surface optimization method is used to optimize the design of the claw mechanism to obtain excellent mechanical properties, and simulation software is used to verify. Finally, a robot prototype was built and its pool tests were conducted, with some experimental results presented. The experimental results show that after the robot reaches the predetermined position through pneumatic ejection and secondary propulsion launch, it can quickly open its claws within 0.11 s and apply 462.42 N adsorption force to complete the adsorption of the target.