Abstract
The kinematics of the octopus's arm is studied from the point of view of robotics. A continuum three-dimensional kinematic model of the arm, based on a nonlinear rod theory, is proposed. The model enables the calculation of the strains in various muscle fibers that are required in order to produce a given configuration of the arm-a solution to the inverse kinematics problem. The analysis of the forward kinematics problem shows that the strains in the muscle fibers at two distinct points belonging to a cross section of the arm determine the curvature and the twist of the arm at that cross section. The octopus's arm lacks a rigid skeleton and the role of material incompressibility in enabling the configuration control is studied.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1-8 |
| Number of pages | 8 |
| Journal | Journal of Mechanisms and Robotics |
| Volume | 2 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - 1 Feb 2010 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Mechanical Engineering