Stochastic Entanglement of Deterministic Origami Tentacles For Robust Robotic Grasping

Area of Science:

• Robotics
• Mechanical Engineering
• Materials Science

Background:

• Origami-inspired robotic grippers offer compactness and flexibility for object manipulation.
• Achieving robust grasping of diverse objects often requires complex actuation and control systems.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a tendon-driven, origami tentacle gripper that achieves robust object grasping through a combination of deterministic deformation and stochastic entanglement.
• To investigate the design principles and performance of these novel grippers in various conditions.

Main Methods:

• Designing origami tentacles with specific creases, holes, and tapered shapes to enable controlled coiling via tendon actuation.
• Exploiting stochastic entanglement between multiple coiling tentacles for adaptive object gripping.
• Developing a simulation model integrating origami mechanics and Cosserat rods to predict gripper behavior.
• Experimentally validating grasping performance under gravity, in water, and simulating in-orbit scenarios.

Main Results:

• Tailored origami features allow deterministic coiling of tentacles with simple tendon pulls.
• Proximity of multiple tentacles leads to emergent stochastic entanglement, enabling braiding and knotting for secure grasping.
• The gripper demonstrated effective object capture in diverse environments, including underwater and simulated space conditions.
• The simulation model accurately correlated design parameters with grasping performance.

Conclusions:

• The entanglement-enabled origami tentacle gripper offers a simple yet effective solution for robust object manipulation.
• This approach reduces the need for complex actuation and control, paving the way for simpler robotic systems.
• The design shows significant potential for applications requiring adaptable and reliable grasping, such as space robotics and underwater exploration.