New Scientist introduces our latest underwater overlords – or at least the blueprints for one – in a story about Italian researchers who’re designing the world’s first robot octopus:
The trouble with today’s remote-controlled subs, says Cecilia Laschi of the Italian Institute of Technology in Genoa, is that their large hulls and clunky robot arms cannot reach into the nooks and crannies of coral reefs or the rock formations on ocean floors.
…
“So we are replicating the muscular structure of an octopus by making a robot with no rigid structure – and that is completely new to robotics,” she says.
…
The team plans to mimic the longitudinal muscles with soft silicone rubber interspersed with a type of electroactive polymer (EAP) called a dielectric elastomer. Apply an electric field to this material and it squeezes the silicone, making it shorter.
Video at the link.