Design of a Biomimetic Skin for an Octopus-Inspired Robot-Part II: Development of the Skin Artefact

Abstract

Abstract:

In order to develop skin artefact for an octopus-inspired robot arm, which is designed to be able to elongate 60% of its original length, silicone rubber and knitted nylon sheet were selected to manufacture an artificial skin, due to their higher elastic strain and high flexibility. Tensile and scissors cutting tests were conducted to characterise the matrix and reinforcing materials and the skin artefact. Material properties of the individual and the composite materials were compared with the measured properties of real octopus skin presented in Part I. The Young’s modulus of the skin should be below 20 MPa and the elastic strain range should be over 60%. The fracture toughness should be at least 0.9 kJ·m−2. Tubes made of the skin artefact filled with liquid were tested to study volume change under deformation. Finite element analysis model was developed to simulate the material and arm structure under tensile loading. Results show that the skin artefact developed has similar mechanical properties as the real octopus skin and satisfies all the design specifications of the OCTOPUS robot.

Key words: octopus skin, static tensile test, toughness, skin artefact, nylon/silicone composite

Jinping Hou??Richard H. C. Bonser??George Jeronimidis?. Design of a Biomimetic Skin for an Octopus-Inspired Robot-Part II: Development of the Skin Artefact[J].J4, 2011, 8(3): 297-304.

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