Introducing new octopus robots that can move flexibly like 'real goods'

The robot that Laschi's group created is extremely flexible and capable of responding to the environment better than other robots.

Researchers at Sant'Anna of the Institute for Advanced Studies in Pisa, Italy are testing a product-like octopus robot coming out of some horror sci-fi movie.

This is one of the products of Cecilia Laschi, a professor at Sant'Anna Bio Robot, she is also one of the pioneers in the field of "soft robot". She has spent most of her career studying biological robots far from the metal robots that we often think of.

Octopus robots can swim, crawl and grip.

"The robot's body is very different from living organisms, especially due to their hard frame , " Laschi said. "In the living body, the soft body can deform to interact with the environment, and this is exploited to simplify control of movements. Octopus is the most representative animal to learn the movements. We have studied this animal and along with many different technologies to create an octopus robot that can hold, walk and swim. '

The robot that Laschi's group created is extremely flexible and capable of responding to the environment better than other robots."This is a relatively new field but there is potential for showing what robots can do," Laschi said.

This octopus robot has the ability to move flexibly on rough terrain.

One of the advantages of this octopus robot is that it does not require too much computer power . It also has the ability to move flexibly on rough terrain. In fact, it can be used in marine environmental exploration or even in the field of biological health.

This robot was tested in the Mediterranean Sea earlier this year, it can move by sucking liquid into the body and then pushing them out to gain momentum, or use 8 tentacles to crawling on the seabed. To replace the octopus's body, Laschi and her team used Electroactive Polymer , which can change shape when exposed to electricity.

This robot can move by sucking liquid into the body and then pushing them out to gain momentum.

Laschi said the group was successful in studying this octopus project, but the related work continued."We always have more than one project on the topic of research , " she said. "We are studying its biological application. We have developed a soft endoscope to serve medicine, and create soft tentacles to support elderly bathe . European Commission have supported these projects ".

According to Laschi, soft robots will be the key technology in the future, will she guess correctly? Let's wait and see.