| Soft bodied technology for biomedical robotics and instrumentation has yet to be established as standard in the field. The current technology used is primarily based on rigid, hard and partially flexible objects. Although these current designs function and provide a means to obtain their objective, they are not optimized for the soft tissues that they are encountering. It is the goal of this study to use innovative techniques to design and fabricate new soft bodied robots to be used as medical equipment to better serve the biomedical industry.;To better design soft bodied robots and biomedical tools this study investigated the use of animal mimicry and animal inspiration. Tobacco hornworms, Manduca sexta, served as the model for accurately placing artificial soft actuators in a soft shell for maximum movement and flexibility. X-ray microtomography imaging analysis provided a 3D model of the muscular system of Manduca and the use of shape memory alloys (SMAs) provided a comparable system to natural muscle for the actuation of the robot. |
