Journal of Bionic Engineering最新文献

Soft grippers research is gaining increasing attention for their flexibility. However, the conventional soft gripper primarily focuses on soft fingers, without considering the palm. This makes grasping forces concentrated in the fingertip areas, resulting in objects being prone to damage and instability during handling, especially for delicate items. Additionally, pre-transportation classification faces challenges: tactile methods are complex, visual methods are environment-sensitive, and both struggle with similar objects. To address these problems, inspired by the human hand’s transition between finger grasp and palm support and the lotus’s hierarchical structure, this paper proposes a dual-layer gripper, named IOSGripper. It features four pneumatic soft fingers and a rotational soft-rigid palm. Through coordinated control of the fingers and palm, it transitions concentrated fingertip squeeze force to distributed palm support force, reducing squeeze force and squeeze duration. Moreover, it integrates a range sensor and four load cells, enabling stable and accurate measurements of the object’s height and weight. Furthermore, a classifier is developed based on K-nearest neighbor algorithm, allowing real-time object classification. Experiments demonstrate that compared to only using soft fingers, the IOSGripper significantly reduces the squeeze force on the objects (with 0 N squeeze force during palm support) and damage on the delicate object, while improving grasping stability. Its height and weight measurement errors are within 2 mm and 1 g, respectively. And it achieves high accuracy in three test scenarios, including classifying similar objects. This study provides useful insights for the design of soft grippers capable of human-like grasping and sorting tasks.

Despite advancements, amphibious robots still exhibit inadequate locomotion performance. As natatores demonstrate exceptional walking and swimming capabilities, they provide an ideal bionic prototype for structural enhancement. Consequently, this study designed a novel propulsion mechanism inspired by waterfowl, featuring a slider-four-bar linkage system that simultaneously enables foot folding and retracting. Static structural analysis was performed to identify and optimize weak components of the mechanism. The achievable workspace of the mechanism was calculated through kinematic analysis. Mathematical and numerical hydrodynamic models were established to evaluate the mechanism’s hydrodynamic performance using a defined thrust efficiency metric. To analyze the influence of kinematic parameters on the propulsion mechanism across full motion cycles, a surrogate model correlating kinematic parameters with the thrust efficiency metric was developed. Results demonstrate that the optimized propulsion mechanism satisfies the requirement of static performance under working conditions. Compared to the Waterfowl-inspired robot-I (WIR-I), the proposed mechanism achieves reduction in retraction stroke resistance for robotic webbed-foot propulsion systems. Surrogate model results show the following hierarchy of influence across kinematic parameters on the thrust efficiency metric: Paddling angle per cycle exceeds temporal baseline, which in turn exceeds temporal scaling factor of extension phase, power stroke, flexion phase, and retraction stroke. Flow field characterization indicates that flow attachment constitutes the dominant factor governing thrust efficiency. These findings could provide new design principles for future biomimetic webbed-foot robotic systems and establish a theoretical foundation for hydrodynamic optimization in amphibious robotics development and deployment.

Soft robots, owing to their ability to undergo continuous large deformations, hold significant promise in fields such as disaster rescue, scientific exploration, and medical healthcare. However, they are prone to damage under harsh working conditions, which can negatively impact their operational efficiency. The existing research on the protection of soft robots is very limited. In this study, inspired by the natural armor of the arapaima and the asymmetrical body surface structures of the cobra, a high-performance flexible protective system was designed using a coupled biomimetic approach. An electronic pressure testing machine was used to evaluate the flexibility and protective performance of the biomimetic protection system. The results indicated that the presence of the asymmetric structures can substantially enhance the protection performance of the biomimetic protection system without appreciably compromising its flexibility in the slightest. This is due to the reason that the frictional anisotropic effect of asymmetric structure has varying effects on the interlocking interaction between adjacent scales in bending and compression conditions. This study introduces a novel approach aiming at enhancing the protective performance of flexible protection systems, thus presenting potential applications in soft robotic systems.

The net capturing method holds great potential for space debris removal due to its adaptability to the various target shapes and high fault tolerance. However, the capture mechanisms of current rope nets, which rely solely on a passive wrapping mechanism, limit their capacity to capture objects within a specific size range and make it challenging to handle unexpected situations. Inspired by spider webs, which combine wrapping and adhering to capture prey of various sizes, we present a new type of net (envelope diameter: 208.49 mm) for on-orbit capture. This net adopts a spiral symmetric structure similar to spider webs, incorporates electrostatic-microstructure hybrid adhesives, and increases the maximum contact area by 38.31%, allowing it to capture debris ranging from fragments smaller than the mesh size (envelope diameter: 2.7 mm - 4.4 mm) to larger objects (envelope diameter: 270 mm), and effectively grasps flexible items (450 mm²), planar items (350 mm²) and three-dimensional items (160 mm³). Moreover, to validate the net’s capability for wrapping and adhesion, simulations and experiments are demonstrated that this dual capture method can effectively handle various targets.

Bio-inspired and bio-hybrid principles are used to design robots that imitate biological systems. Animals and insects are commonly selected as the prototype in this context due to their mobility. However, plants have been found to grow slowly but move rapidly based on hydraulics and mechanics. The Venus flytrap (Dionaea muscipula) is an example of a carnivorous plant that eats insects, but the mechanism underlying its quick predation behavior has not been adequately explored in research. It is particularly important to determine how cells of this plant are grouped together, from the level of the cell to that of the tissue as well as from the microscopic to the macroscopic scale, such that they can perform this motion without the help of muscles. In this study, we map the cellular characteristics and cell distribution of the Venus flytrap. We propose an area-weighted central point to describe a units-driven principle of actuation and develop a computational model to verify it. We fabricate and test a physical model that patterned the cellular structure of the Venus flytrap to explore this mechanism by using chemically fixed and immobile samples. The hydrogel-based actuator replicates the deformation of the plant cell under turgor pressure. The statistical results show that the area-weighted center of the plant involves a shift, and this distribution actuates the bending-induced deformation of its lobes.

The main cable is the primary load-bearing component of a suspension bridge, continuously exposed to harsh environmental conditions, such as wind and rain, throughout the year. These adverse conditions contribute to varying degrees of degradation and damage to the main cable, necessitating regular inspections to prevent catastrophic failures. Traditional manual inspection methods not only suffer from low efficiency but also pose significant safety risks to personnel. To address these challenges and ensure the safe and effective inspection of suspension bridge main cables, this study introduces a novel cooperative climbing robot, designated as Main Cable Robot Version II (CCRobot-M-II), inspired by the locomotion of the inchworm. The robot employs an alternating opening and closing mechanism of four gripper sets, mimicking the inchworm’s movement to achieve efficient crawling along the suspension bridge handrails. This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the structural design, key components, and motion mechanisms of CCRobot-M-II. A detailed force analysis of the robot’s crawling process is also presented, followed by the design of the control system and the development of an efficient motion control algorithm. Laboratory experiments demonstrate that the robot achieves a positional error of 0–0.64% during crawling, with a maximum average crawling speed of 7.6 m/min. Furthermore, the biomimetic design enables the robot to overcome obstacles up to 30 mm in height and possess the capability to handle suspension bridge cables with spans ranging from 740 to 1100 mm. Finally, CCRobot-M-II successfully conducted an inspection of the main cable on a suspension bridge, marking the world’s first successful deployment of a climbing robot for main cable inspection on a suspension bridge.

Soft robotic manipulators represent a rapidly evolving field characterized by inherent compliance, adaptability, and safe interactions within unstructured environments. Over the past decade (2015–2025), significant advancements have transformed their capabilities through novel designs inspired by biological systems, advanced modeling frameworks, sophisticated control strategies, and integration into diverse real-world applications. Recent innovations in multifunctional materials and emerging actuation technologies have markedly expanded manipulator performance, reliability, and dexterity. Concurrently, developments in modeling have progressed from simplified geometric methods toward highly accurate physics-based and hybrid data-driven approaches, substantially improving real-time prediction and controllability. Coupled with these developments, adaptive and robust control strategies–including learning-based techniques–have enabled unprecedented autonomy and precision in challenging application domains such as Minimally Invasive Surgery (MIS), precision agriculture, deep-sea exploration, disaster recovery, and space missions. Despite these remarkable strides, key challenges remain, notably regarding scalability, long-term material durability, robust integrated sensing, and standardized evaluation procedures. This review comprehensively synthesizes recent advances, critically evaluates state-of-the-art methodologies, and systematically identifies existing gaps to provide a clear roadmap and targeted research directions, guiding future developments toward the broader adoption and optimal utilization of soft robotic manipulators.

Microrobotic systems are emerging as transformative technology for minimally invasive medicine, driven by innovations in actuation mechanisms, advanced fabrication paradigms, and multifunctional system integration. This comprehensive review analyzes the evolution of microrobotic technologies through three critical dimensions: (1) actuation modalities, including magnetic, optical, acoustic, chemical, and biological actuation, with a focus on the synergistic advantages of hybrid actuation strategies in complex internal physiological environments; (2) Fabrication methods cover technologies such as photolithography, microinjection molding, self-assembly, and 3D printing, emphasizing innovative strategies involving multi-technology integration and collaborative manufacturing of bio/non-bio hybrid materials; (3) Internal physiological applications involve disease diagnosis, targeted drug delivery, minimally invasive surgery, tissue engineering, and cell manipulation, highlighting the broad prospects of microrobots in precision medicine. Despite remarkable progress, critical challenges remain, including low actuation efficiency, as seen in acoustic systems, limited biocompatibility, exemplified by the toxicity of hydrogen peroxide in chemical actuation, delayed clinical translation, and other related challenges that must be addressed to advance the field.

Bamboo is a natural composite that has inspired the design of biomimetic composites due to its unique multi-scale structure and outstanding mechanical properties. This paper first presents the structural features of bamboo, detailing the hydrophobic wax and silica layer of the surface, the functionally graded vascular bundles of the wall for optimized toughness, and the hollow, multi-node architecture of the stem for overall stability and bending resistance. Subsequently, this study surveys recent sustainability and designability advances in bamboo-inspired composites. Inspiration from the bamboo surface has spurred the creation of materials with enhanced functionalities, such as transparent composites and high-stiffness structural materials. Imitation of the wall structure has led to the development of high-strength and tough materials, with the discussion covering examples such as hydrogels, polymer composites, and metal-matrix composites. Inspiration from the stem structure has yielded lightweight composites with excellent energy absorption and stability, exemplified by advanced linear materials like resilient yarns and tendon sutures, as well as functional structures like flexible sensors. These biomimetic designs show significant potential across numerous fields, including construction, healthcare, urban rail transit, wearable electronics, and mechanical engineering. Finally, this paper discusses the current limitations and challenges to understanding bamboo’s structural characteristics towards the development of bamboo-inspired composites. Future research directions are proposed, including understanding bamboo’s structure, designing novel biomimetic composites, and optimizing their structure to develop bamboo-inspired functional materials.