DIY Soft Robotic Tentacle

[Harrison Young]

Hi Everyone,



(Top: uninflated tentacle Bottom: inflated tentacle)

I made a soft robotics tentacle that can easily be made at home without any specialized equipment or training. It is made by bonding three separate extending actuators in pyramid shape.

The tentacle is an easy and affordable soft robotics project for beginners. The molds are made from ballpoint pens, only take a few minutes to make and do not require any careful measurements. A single trial size unit of Ecoflex 00-50 contains enough rubber to make over 40 tentacles. This makes it an ideal project for schools or STEM camps to introduce students to the field of soft robotics.


(One of the three molds used to make the tentacle)

The tentacle takes about 7 hours to make if the rubber cures at room temperature. However, the fabrication time can be reduced to one hour if the rubber is allowed to cure at 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gPYjo-W2ctU
This is a tutorial on how to make the tentacle.

[Gianteye]

Excellent work! I really appreciate your use of everyday materials as molds. It makes your work super easy to experiment with at home and learn from.

I'd like to blog about this project. Would that be alright? Is there anything additional I should include?

[Harrison Young]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked the project. Feel free to blog about it. I wrote an instructable describing how to make the tentacle. It may be worth including so anyone who is interested does not have to search for the instructions.

http://www.instructables.com/id/DIY-Sof ... -Tentacle/

[Gianteye]

Howdy! We posted your work on the blog! http://superreleaser.com/blog/2016/8/7/ ... d-printing

Thanks again for sharing it here. I hope a ton of people see it. The way you design soft robots makes it super easy for people to get started making their own and I feel it's a great way to introduce people to the technology.

[Brad Cahill]

Nice job! Thanks for the clarification.