Underwater soft robotics is receiving growing popularity within the scientific community, thanks to its prospective capability of tackling challenges that are hardly dealt with by traditional rigid technologies, especially while interacting with unstructured environment. Incorporating the benefits of the two approaches, we propose a multi-functional, multi-module underwater robotic system with deformable appendages for grasping and propulsion inspired by bacteria morphology. Exploiting natural compliance, several modules resembling bacterial flagella provide propulsion and manipulation skills, while representing also dynamically flow-responsive and highly deformable appendages for distributed sensing and energy harvesting capabilities. The proposed design, combined with onboard autonomous operation capability, has the potential to unveil an effective solution for a broad range of tasks currently unsolved, such as the non-invasive monitoring of water quality and marine habitats, easing the mapping of the species and their distribution. It also allows to perform safe, robust, and gentle manipulation and intervention in underwater human-made structures.
