Design and development of starfish-like robot: Soft bionic platform with multi-motion using SMA actuators

Abstract

This paper presents a starfish-like robot with bionic soft body, multi-motion inspired by live starfishes. The structural design principle is based on the biological investigation. The robot prototype is fabricated with help of 3D printing model. By the locomotion principle and control strategy, the soft starfish-like robot is able to fulfill in crawling on flat ground, climbing over viscous soil terrain, free motions in random directions, navigating through a target object, steering as well as grasping an imaginary prey. The results indicate that the starfish-like robot driven by shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators possesses a great robustness against strong impact and patially demonstrate its capacity of mobility and environmental adaption.