The Anatomy of Marine Worms as Inspiration for Robotics

This poster (in Greek) was presented at the “Crete and Sea” event, organized by HCMR and FORTH, on 10 February 2026. Marine worms are highly promising model organisms and serve as inspiration for the development of soft robotic systems, due to their remarkable ability to adapt to diverse and often extreme environmental conditions. The MAPWORMS project explores less-studied adaptations of annelids, with a particular focus on the protrusion mechanism of the Sipuncula introvert. In this study, the species Phascolosoma stephensoni Stephen, 1942 was used as a biological model for robotics. This species is commonly found in shallow Mediterranean habitats and demonstrates strong resilience to environmental stress. Micro-computed tomography (micro-CT) was employed to investigate the anatomical structures involved in the protrusion and retraction mechanism of the P. stephensoni introvert.