You know who thinks building a robotic octopus is an awesome idea? EVERYONE. Apparently the idea is a solid enough idea that the European Commision has funded this project. The goal is to mimic the capabilities of the squishiest of the cephalopods in order to advance soft robotics. Or possibly to take over the world. They are hoping to have a fully capable robot octopus with no rigid structures at all.
You may be thinking that making a squirming tentacle is easy business. What they are attempting however, is the actual movement of an octopus including extension/contraction as well as grasping. This requires a complex system of control wires as well as “artificial muscular hydrostats” to allow it to do all these movements. A flexible skin covered in sensors will be added to the final design.
Really Interested to see how this pans out
“Or possibly to take over the world.”
If it were up to the Japanese, I’m sure they would have other ideas.
You know Japanese culture has too much influence when: You see a post about a robotic octopus, think of tentacle porn, and decide to warn the public about what it will be actually used for, only to see someone else has already done so.
Are you me?
I guess it’s possible, but I don’t recall being anyone else. Maybe we have similar opinions.
Came to post this. Octopus sex toys awayyyyyyy!
“Or possibly to take over the world.”
I’m reminded of ” Day of the tentacle” with the squid guy who wanted to acheive world domination…
http://www.google.dk/search?um=1&hl=da&client=safari&tbo=d&biw=768&bih=900&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=day+of+the+tentacle&oq=day+of+the&aq=2&aqi=g5g-S5&aql=&gs_l=img.1.2.0l5j0i24l5.38728.41786.0.44251.10.7.0.3.3.0.166.706.5j2.7.0…0.0.-_htc-rCLM8
haha, safari
It just works.
Next time, please remove all the extra parameters from that URL 🙁