Our latest research has just been published in the Journal of the Royal Society Interface! In this interdisciplinary study, we uncover the biomechanical and evolutionary advantages of the seahorse’s unique tail musculature—work that bridges biological insight and bio-inspired robotics.

Elongated Hypaxial Muscles Enable Robust and Adaptive Grasping in the Seahorse Tail

Through a combination of in-silico simulations and physical prototyping, our study (read the article) reveals how the seahorse tail’s uniquely elongated hypaxial muscles contribute both functionally and mechanically to its grasping ability. Functionally, these long muscle sheets enhance ventral and lateral grasping by complementing the finer control of shorter intersegmental muscles with dispersed motion. Mechanically, the elongation of the hypaxial muscles allows for greater contractile forces and significantly improve force-to-torque transmission across the tail's vertebral structure. Our biomimetic experiments confirm that these muscular advantages persist even outside aquatic environments, underscoring their potential relevance for robotics. While previous work has mainly drawn inspiration from the skeletal structure of the seahorse tail, our findings suggest that replicating its muscle-tendon architecture could further improve this novel class of bio-inspired robotic manipulators that combine strength and flexibility. This work illustrates the value of integrating biological insight with robotic implementation, advancing both evolutionary understanding and the design of adaptive, bio-inspired robots. Explore more in the accompanying Royal Society blog post.