There are some things that should be limited to the horror genre.
Stuff like talking dolls, axe-wielding hockey goalies and people who put jam on a scone before the cream. All of which should stay in nightmares and never be confronted in real life.
Oh, and creepy robotic octopuses that can move around in water just like the real thing.
Which is exactly what scientists at Queen Mary University of London have done. Only they call it a ‘Bio-Inspired Octopus Robot Based on Novel Soft Fluidic Actuator.’
The team behind the creation say they used biology as a basis for creating the robotic structure. Using ‘soft robotics’ – a subset of robotics focused on pliant materials – they made a model that successfully uses tentacles for propulsion.
‘The proposed octopus robot is entirely made from soft material and uses a novel fluidic actuation mechanism that allows the robot to advance forward, change directions and rotate around its primary axis,’ the team report in their paper.
‘The paper presents the robot’s design and fabrication process. An experimental study is conducted showing the feasibility of the proposed robot and actuation mechanism.’
We haven’t got a clue what this weird robot thing will eventually be used for. But we can envision hundreds of them sweeping out of a river to overrun a small town.
Then again, maybe it can be tasked with underwater exploration and the rather important matter of saving the oceans.
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