Rather than reinventing the wheel , or perhaps   the ramification , robotics engineers have assay to imitate the modes of transfer witness in the animal realm . Now to add to roboticdogs , fishandants ,   we have a robot that moves like an octopus .

Cephalopods , includingoctopodes ,   have developed multiple ways of getting around . Their tentacles can be used to both swim and walk , and in an emergency cephalopods can practice jet actuation , although this becomesinefficient for larger creatures .

The robot version was build by the Foundation for Research and Technology - Hellas ( FORTH ) from flexible silicon webbing and   presented at the International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems .

" upper of 0.5 body length per 2d and propulsive military group of up to 10.5 N were achieved , with a cost of transport as low as 0.62 , " theresearch team arrogate . The cost of transport is a measure of efficiency , count as P / mgv   where P is the mogul input and m , g and v constitute mass , gravity and velocity severally .

With so many species out there to draw on , the team had lots of approximation on how to improve their first prototypes . “ The research worker report that the gain of a soft and lissome silicone polymer web has near doubled the speed of the roboctopus , and not quenched with that , the scientists have also taught it to crawl , carry object , and swim free in the Aegean Sea , " write Evan Ackerman ofIEEE Spectrum .

The benefits of the web are seeable in the picture below . take down also the capacity of the octopus to carry a egg while swim .

Before adding the web , the devilfish ' toll of transport was 0.85 . While the melioration is remarkable , it should not be forgotten that human have a fingerstall of 0.1 when walk , and half thatwhen cycling .

The inventor think a robot octopus could be a utile way to analyze maritime environments , note that fish seemed astonishingly unflustered by their creation .

Traditional voiceless robots are , by definition , less pliant than delicate ones ,   only able to bend at specific joints . Thus , they can become trapped in small space and well damage in collisions .

The second appear to be right for these sort of flexible robots . At the same conference , a team from MIT present asnake - like robot revolutionize by an octopus tentacle .

permit ’s just desire the robots do n’t get too much like their models andturn cannibal .