Fig 1.
Comparison between traditional and in-field manufacturing of soft manipulators.
The ability to iterate the design and fabricate actuators in-field is key to enable adaptations to specific and unanticipated challenges found in unstructured, remote environments (indicated by the blue background).
Fig 2.
Research vessel and the remotely operated underwater vehicle.
A: R/V Falkor. B: ROV SuBastian.
Fig 3.
Soft manipulator setup on the ROV.
A: The soft manipulators are installed on the retractable tray of the ROV. B: The manifold, pump, control bottle, and accumulator are installed on the port rear side. These were developed as part of a previous study [9].
Fig 4.
Full schematic of the soft manipulator setup.
Hydraulic (solid black line) and electrical connections (dashed red lines) are represented. This setup is similar to the one used in [9].
Fig 5.
A traditionally laboratory-fabricated soft manipulator.
A: Open/deflated configuration. B: Closed/inflated configuration.
Fig 6.
Example of printing a soft bellows out of TPU.
Fig 7.
Fully 3D printed soft manipulator.
The orange and blue parts are printed with (flexible) TPU, black parts are printed with (hard) PLA.
Fig 8.
Modified three fingers soft manipulator.
Modified three-finger soft manipulator converted to a two-finger version to allow pinch and power grasps.
Fig 9.
Various types of grasping and comparison with a human hand.
A & C: A power grasp allows to pick up large objects. B & D: Pinch grasp allows more dexterity to pick up small objects.
Fig 10.
A challenging grasping situation.
An aplacophoran mollusc at the base of a delicate coral was difficult to grasp without damaging the coral.
Fig 11.
Challenges when grasping brittle specimens with hard bodied manipulators.
A: Coral rubble (depth: 616m, S1 Video). B: Enallopsammia sp. coral (depth: 434m).
Fig 12.
Examples of grasping sea cucumber (Holothuria).
A: On a sandy substrate (depth: 2224m). B: On a rocky substrate (depth: 1282m).
Fig 13.
Example of orienting the manipulator horizontally or perpendicularly from a deep-sea mushroom coral (Anthomastus sp., depth: 1282m).
Fig 14.
Sampling with a 3D printed soft manipulator designed and constructed on-board the ship.
A & B: a goniasterid (depth: 1162m). C & D: a holothurian (depth: 843m).
Fig 15.
The multi-mode gripper could be used successfully for sampling several sea creatures.
A & B: pinch grasp on a holothurian (depth: 843m). C & D: a power grasp on a hexactinellid sponge (depth: 1361m).