Bioinspired End Effectors for an ROV
In collaboration with Cotecmar, the Colombian science and technology corporation for the naval, maritime and riverine industry, we designed end effectors for an ROV (remotely operated vehicle). The project started from one question: what can nature teach us about grasping and manipulating objects underwater?
The challenge
An ROV interacts with the seabed only through its manipulator, and the tool at the end of that arm decides what the vehicle can actually do. Picking up objects on the seafloor is hard: they come in irregular shapes, they can be fragile after a long time underwater, and the operator works with limited visibility, through cameras, while the vehicle is pushed around by currents. A general-purpose industrial gripper is not designed for those conditions. Archaeological work adds one more requirement: the evidence must be recovered without damaging it.
From nature to design
Our lab works on bioinspired robotics, and this project is an example of that approach: identifying shapes and mechanisms found in living organisms and translating them into functional geometries. Marine animals solve the problem of grasping in water every day, holding on to objects of very different shapes without seeing them clearly and without crushing them. We used those strategies as a starting point to define the geometry of end effectors that conform to the object and spread the contact load, instead of concentrating it at a few points.
This line of work connects with other projects in the lab where contact is the central problem, such as the parametric design of grippers that handle corals without breaking them.
Colombiamar 2025
The project with Cotecmar was showcased at Colombiamar 2025, held in Cartagena from March 12 to 14, 2025, by Admiral Juan Ricardo Rozo Obregón, Commander of the Colombian Navy, as part of the technological capabilities being developed for underwater operations in the country. At the fair, the Navy's Diving and Salvage Department (DEBUSA) exhibited its equipment for the investigation of the San José galleon shipwreck.
Field work
Beyond the lab, our work has supported underwater conservation and exploration projects, and it has been featured in the news. For example, in this CNN en Español video about the exploration of the San José galleon in the Colombian Caribbean, you can see in the field the end effector we designed and developed for Cotecmar, used to collect surface archaeological evidence from the wreck.
For a research lab, seeing a design leave the bench and work on one of the most important underwater heritage sites in the world is the best possible validation.
Next steps
We will continue developing bioinspired tools for underwater manipulation, working toward end effectors that can be adapted to new objects and tasks, from archaeological recovery to marine conservation.
Acknowledgements
We thank Cotecmar and the Colombian Navy for their trust and for bringing this work to the field, and the students of the lab who took part in the design and development of the end effectors.