Robot Octopus Promises To Be Entirely Squishy
Writing by Evan Ackerman on Monday, 23 of March , 2009 at 3:32 am
Octopi are just about the most versatile sea creatures in existence. Beyond their smarts and the whole color changing thing, they have the enviable ability to stuff themselves into seemingly impossible places, thanks to the fact that they have (practically) no bones. It would of course be totally and completely awesome to have a robot able to duplicate even some of the talents of a cephalopod, and researchers from Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa are trying to make it happen.
“We are replicating the muscular structure of an octopus by making a robot with no rigid structure – and that is completely new to robotics,” says researcher Cecilia Laschi. No kidding. Robots have rigid bits in them for good reasons: namely, it makes them strong. But octopi are able to control their muscles so that they’re rigid when necessary and flexible (in any direction) when necessary, plus tentacles can get longer and skinnier to fit into various, you know, orifices. It’s a tricky thing to emulate, but it may be possible with electroactive polymers (and 14 million dollars).
Marine biologists are understandably skeptical about the whole thing, and the researchers aren’t kidding when they say that a robot with no rigid structure would be revolutionary. It would be great for exploring the sea bed, for sure, but it would be even better at getting oysters out of bottles.
VIA [ New Scientist ]
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Category: Biorobotics, Research
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