Learning from Nature: A Review on Biological Gripping Principles and Their Application to Robotics

The process of biological evolution has resulted in a wide variety of forms, functions and strategies and this has led to distinct optimization of certain traits in organisms. Technical adoption of some "inventions of nature" might be highly beneficial for innovative developments in materials science and engineering through biomimetic studies. One prominent field of biomimetic research is related to prehension and manipulation mechanisms in robotics since these tasks are just as ubiquitous in technical environments as they are in nature. Biological end effectors with purposes ranging from simple locomotion, mating and prey catching up to delicate object manipulation have been realized there, with innumerable, sometimes subtle variants of structure and properties between them. Even though there is some coarse biological classification of biological gripping devices, the latter represent certain core principles, which evolved convergently due to the underlying basic physical phenomena. This chapter aims to categorize the most common physical principles, their advantages and shortcomings, and present a range of biological examples. Furthermore, possible transfers of functional principles from biological systems into technical environments are discussed.