Nemertea Proboscis Inspired Extendable Mechanism

Abstract

In this research, we aim to establish a design theory and implementation method for an inflatable robot mechanism that can branch and divide freely based on the core technology that a robot freely shapes its structure with a shape memory function. As a first step of our investigation, we present an initial prototype model of branched torus mechanism using inflatable structure inspired by the nemertea proboscis We developed the basic prototype mechanical model of this proboscis structure and did some experiments to understand the basic performance of this configuration. As explained above, we confirmed the basic performances of the first prototype mechanical models based on nemertea proboscis and this mechanical configuration can be used for the expandable gripper, the branched stent graft, the distributer of the tiny mobile robots into the real fields.