Communications of the ACM
Seahorse's Armor Gives Engineers Insight Into Robotics Designs
Engineers plan to model a flexible robotic arm on the armored tail of a seahorse.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons
The seahorse is the inspiration for a robotics design project at the University of California, San Diego. A team of engineers, led by professors Joanna McKittrick and Marc Meyers, plan to use a structure that is similar to the armored tail of a seahorse to create a flexible robotic arm with muscles made out of polymer.
The seahorse's tail is protected and is very flexible, and the team plans to use three-dimensional printing to create artificial bony plates, and then equip them with polymers that would act as muscles. The goal is to build a robotic arm that would be a unique hybrid of soft and hard robotic devices.
Such a protected and flexible arm would be able to grasp a variety of objects of different shapes and sizes. The arm could be used in medical devices, underwater exploration, and unmanned bomb detection and detonation.
From Jacobs School of Engineering (UCSD)
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