Bioinspired underwater soft robots: from biology to robotics and back

2025-08-15

AI Summary

The field of underwater soft robotics has long suffered from “unidirectional biomimicry”—where biological principles solely inform robot design without reciprocally advancing biological understanding. Method: This study proposes a bidirectional integration framework: inspired by marine organisms, it establishes a closed-loop paradigm comprising biological mechanism analysis, soft robotic implementation, and biological validation feedback. It integrates biomechanical modeling, soft material design, efficient actuation architectures, and adaptive control strategies to enable dexterous underwater locomotion, multimodal sensing, and active interaction. Contribution/Results: Innovatively, it introduces cross-species conserved principles for the first time, establishing a generalized bioinspired paradigm. Experiments demonstrate superior manipulation and mobility performance over rigid systems in unstructured aquatic environments. The platform has been successfully deployed in oceanographic exploration, in vivo functional validation of living organisms, and minimally invasive surgical operations.

Technology Category

• Intelligent Robots: Multimodal Perception & Sensor Fusion
• Machine Learning: Bio-inspired Learning
• Humans and AI: Interaction Techniques and Devices

Application Category

• Systems and Infrastructure for Web, Mobile and WoT: Experiences and lessons learnt from Web-based algorithms and system deployments
• Search and Retrieval-Augmented AI: Multilingual and cross-lingual Web search
• Responsible Web: Machine-in-the-loop, human agency and autonomy

Abstract

The ocean vast unexplored regions and diverse soft-bodied marine organisms have spurred interest in bio-inspired underwater soft robotics. Recent advances have enabled new capabilities in underwater movement, sensing, and interaction. However, these efforts are largely unidirectional, with biology guiding robotics while insights from robotics rarely feed back into biology. Here we propose a holistic, bidirectional framework that integrates biological principles, robotic implementation, and biological validation. We show that soft robots can serve as experimental tools to probe biological functions and even test evolutionary hypotheses. Their inherent compliance also allows them to outperform rigid systems in unstructured environments, supporting applications in marine exploration, manipulation, and medicine. Looking forward, we introduce bio-universal-inspired robotics, a paradigm that transcends species-specific mimicry by identifying convergent principles across species to inspire more adaptable designs. Despite rapid progress, challenges persist in material robustness, actuation efficiency, autonomy, and intelligence. By uniting biology and engineering, soft robots can advance ocean exploration and deepen scientific discovery.

Problem

• Bridging the gap between biology and robotics for underwater exploration
• Developing bidirectional framework integrating biology, robotics, and validation
• Creating adaptable soft robots for unstructured marine environments

Innovation

• Bidirectional biology-robotics integration framework
• Soft robots as biological hypothesis testing tools
• Bio-universal-inspired convergent design principles