Related editorial: Arise, Roboctopus!
INVEST €10 million in a robotic octopus and you will be able to search the seabed with the same dexterity as the real eight-legged cephalopod. At least that’s the plan, say those who are attempting to build a robot with arms that work in the same way that octopuses tentacles do. Having no solid skeleton, it will be the world’s first entirely soft robot.
The trouble with today’s remote-controlled subs, says Cecilia Laschi of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa, is that their large hulls and clunky…
