New research suggests that a seahorse’s square shaped tail makes it more equipped to withstand attack than a smooth, round tail. These findings, found in the journal Science, could help researchers construct more flexible and durable robots in the future.
That tail consists of square prisms with a boxy cross section and bony armor instead of the more common cylindrical, arm-like form. Seahorses use it to get a better grip on their surroundings and to bend and twist. This is not common, and it seems odd for a sea creature to not have a smooth, streamlined shape.
But Miriam Ashley-Ross of Wake Forest University, who was not involved in the study, pointed out that “when living organisms deviate from the norm, there’s usually a good biomechanical reason: a clue to some specific problem that needs to be solved,” LA Times reports.
Lead author of the paper “Why the seahorse tail is square,” Michael Porter, got the idea for this study when he began to question the material of the seahorse’s tail while studying the material make-up of their skeletons at UC San Diego. At the time, he was working on building a steerable catheter with a square cross section.
When he went to make the device round, it did not work near as well as the square one. This led Porter to wonder if the square “actually had some advantages over the circle.”
So, researchers printed out a 3D model of the tail and ran it through several tests. When the tail was twisted, they found that the square plates stopped the tail from over twisting, according to Discovery.
Compressing the tail was not easy because the seahorse is jointed in places where a normal solid structure would cave in. This makes them resist their main predator–the water bird.
This new study’s findings could inspire soft-bodied robot designs, new forms of armored robots and search-and-rescue bots that move on the ground like a snake and are able to contract to fit in small spaces.
For instance, snake-inspired bots move using a silicone balloon with inflatable sections. The robots deflate and inflate parts of the balloon to wiggle along.
The problem is that they are very susceptible to abrasion. The seahorse tails give researchers an idea of how to armor these robots so that they are less vulnerable, according to co-author and assistant professor in the College of Engineering at Oregon State University Ross Hatton.
Hatton said in a statement that human engineers tend to build stiff things that are easy to control. He added that nature creates things that are flexible and strong. They do not break, and they can perform a variety of tasks. “That’s why we can learn a lot from animals that will inspire the next generations of robots,” Hatton said.
Porter and his research team stated that they have not gotten far on the application side of things yet, Financial Express reports. However, they see a lot of potential in their unique findings.
