Bioinspired approaches for resource-efficient material flow in production – an innovative actuator concept for peristaltic-based transport

In automated material flow, in a wide variety of areas, the primary goal is usually to handle a wide spectrum of components as time- and cost-efficiently as possible. In view of the current and future challenges in industrial production, it is becoming apparent that ecological requirements are becoming increasingly important in automation solutions. For example, in form of resource efficiency, transformability and material efficiency. In this context, especially materials handling technology is subject of various optimization approaches, as no value is added to the part handled. The question: "How does material flow occur in nature?" thus offers biologically inspired approaches to thinking about transport in the industrial sector. This paper first presents a selection of concepts or existing mechanisms that are adaptable in materials- handling technology and have been developed based on a biological model. In the second part of this paper, a new concept is presented that is modeled on peristalsis as a transport mechanism. The approach presented here uses tensegrity-structures for assembly, which are characterized by their high material efficiency and flexibility. The transport movement is achieved by peristaltic typical contraction or relaxation of the respective structure parts.