Topology, dynamics, and control of an octopus-analog muscular hydrostat

Abstract: Muscular hydrostats, such as octopus arms or elephant trunks, lack bones entirely, endowing them with exceptional dexterity and reconfigurability. Key to their unmatched ability to control nearly infinite degrees of freedom is the architecture into which muscle fibers are weaved. Their arrangement is, effectively, the instantiation of a sophisticated mechanical program that mediates, and likely facilitates, the control and realization of complex, dynamic morphological reconfigurations. Here, by combining medical imaging, biomechanical data, live behavioral experiments and numerical simulations, we synthesize a model octopus arm entailing ~200 continuous muscles groups, and begin to unravel its complexity. We show how 3D arm motions can be understood in terms of storage, transport, and conversion of topological quantities, effected by simple muscle activation templates. These, in turn, can be composed into higher-level control strategies that, compounded by the arm's compliance, are demonstrated in a range of object manipulation tasks rendered additionally challenging by the need to appropriately align suckers, to sense and grasp. Overall, our work exposes broad design and algorithmic principles pertinent to muscular hydrostats, robotics, and dynamics, while significantly advancing our ability to model muscular structures from medical imaging, with potential implications for human health and care.