Despite a significant proportion of the Earth being covered in water, exploration of what lies below has been limited due to the challenges and difficulties inherent in the process. Current state of the art robots such as Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) and Autonomous Underwater Vehicles (AUVs) are bulky, rigid and unable to conform to their environment. Soft robotics offers solutions to this issue. Fluid-actuated eversion or growing robots, in particular, are a good example. While current eversion robots have found many applications on land, their inherent properties make them particularly well suited to underwater environments. An important factor when considering underwater eversion robots is the establishment of a suitable steering mechanism that can enable the robot to change direction as required. This project proposes a design for an eversion robot that is capable of steering while underwater, through the use of bending pouches, a design commonly seen in the literature on land-based eversion robots. These bending pouches contract to enable directional change. Similar to their land-based counterparts, the underwater eversion robot uses the same fluid in the medium it operates in to achieve extension and bending but also to additionally aid in neutral buoyancy. The actuation method of bending pouches meant that robots needed to fully extend before steering was possible. Three robots, with the same design and dimensions were constructed from polyethylene tubes and tested. Our research shows that although the soft eversion robot design in this paper was not capable of consistently generating the same amounts of bending for the inflation volume, it still achieved suitable bending at a range of inflation volumes and was observed to bend to a maximum angle of 68 degrees at 2000 ml, which is in line with the bending angles reported for land-based eversion robots in the literature.

Soft growing vine robots show great potential for navigation and decontamination tasks in the nuclear industry. This paper introduces a novel hybrid continuum-eversion robot designed to address certain challenges in relation to navigating and operating within pipe networks and enclosed remote vessels. The hybrid robot combines the flexibility of a soft eversion robot with the precision of a continuum robot at its tip, allowing for controlled steering and movement in hard to access and/or complex environments. The design enables the delivery of sensors, liquids, and aerosols to remote areas, supporting remote decontamination activities. This paper outlines the design and construction of the robot and the methods by which it achieves selective steering. We also include a comprehensive review of current related work in eversion robotics, as well as other steering devices and actuators currently under research, which underpin this novel active steering approach. This is followed by an experimental evaluation that demonstrates the robot's real-world capabilities in delivering liquids and aerosols to remote locations. The experiments reveal successful outcomes, with over 95% success in precision spraying tests. The paper concludes by discussing future work alongside limitations in the current design, ultimately showcasing its potential as a solution for remote decontamination operations in the nuclear industry.

Here we present a flexible tip mount for eversion (vine) robots. This soft cap allows attaching a payload to an eversion robot while allowing moving through narrow openings, as well as the eversion of protruding objects, and expanded surfaces.

Growing robots based on the eversion principle are known for their ability to extend rapidly, from within, along their longitudinal axis, and, in doing so, reach deep into hitherto inaccessible, remote spaces. Despite many advantages, eversion robots also present significant challenges, one of which is maintaining sensory payload at the tip without restricting the eversion process. A variety of tip mechanisms has been proposed by the robotics community, among them rounded caps of relatively complex construction that are not always compatible with functional hardware, such as sensors or navigation pouches, integrated with the main eversion structure. Moreover, many tip designs incorporate rigid materials, reducing the robot's flexibility and consequent ability to navigate through narrow openings. Here, we address these shortcomings and propose a design to overcome them: a soft, entirely fabric based, cylindrical cap that can easily be slipped onto the tip of eversion robots. Having created a series of caps of different sizes and materials, an experimental study was conducted to evaluate our new design in terms of four key aspects: eversion robot made from multiple layers of everting material, solid objects protruding from the eversion robot, squeezability, and navigability. In all scenarios, we can show that our soft, flexible cap is robust in its ability to maintain its position and is capable of transporting payloads such as a camera across long distances.

Abstract-- A system and testing rig were designed and built to simulate the use of an eversion robot equipped with a radiation sensor to characterise an irradiated pipe prior to decommissioning. The magnets were used as dummy radiation sources which were detected by a hall effect sensor mounted in the interior of the robot. The robot successfully navigated a simple structure with sharp 45 and 90 swept bends as well as constrictions that were used to model partial blockages. Most caps are made from rigid materials spaces is one such area for which robotic solutions and fully encase the tip [4, 5], limiting the size of the have been developed [1]. However, the deployment of in-situ aperture they can fit through and undermining the eversion inspection solutions to the pipes and ducts that riddle these robot's ability to squeeze through spaces smaller than itself. Their A soft, fabric solution exists [6], but that can have difficulties uses ranged from ventilation to waste drainage and many are remaining in place while the robot retracts.

The elastic bands integrated using the ruffles technique proved to be effective in enhancing the performance of the soft robotic structures. In the actuator application, the elastic bands greatly increased the bending capability and force capability of the structure, while in the eversion robot cap application, the elastic bands improved the performance slightly by maintaining the sensory payload at the tip without restricting the eversion process. These findings demonstrate the potential of using elastic bands and textile techniques in soft robotics to create more efficient and adaptable structures.