Cephalopod-inspired soft robots: design criteria and modelling frameworks

Cephalopods (i.e. octopuses and squids) are taken as a source of inspiration for the development of a new kind of underwater soft robot. These cephalopod-inspired, soft-bodied vehicles entail a hollow, elastic shell capable of performing a routine of recursive ingestion and expulsion of discrete slugs of fluids via the actual inflation and deflation of the elastic chamber. This routine allows the vehicle to propel itself in water in a very similar fashion to that of cephalopods. This mode of pulsed jetting enabled by the actual body shape variations can ideally benefit from the positive feedback provided by impulse-rich discontinuous jet formation and added mass recovery. This work is complemented by extensive modelling efforts which are meant to aid in the process of mechanical design optimization as well as providing an advanced tool for biomechanical studies of living cephalopods.