Soon, robotic octopus to solve the mysteries of seas

IN LONDON:
Scientists are developing a robotic octopus that will be able to search the
seabed with the same extraordinary dexterity as the real eight-legged
cephalopod.

With
no solid skeleton, the robot would be the world's first entirely soft robot, say
researchers.

The
trouble with today's remote-controlled subs, says researcher 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.

This
implies they are unable to photograph objects in these places or pick up samples
for analysis. And that's a major minus point for oceanographers hunting for
signs of climate change in the oceans and on coral reefs.

Since
an octopus's tentacles can bend in all directions and quickly thin and elongate
to almost twice their length, they can reach, grasp and manipulate objects in
tiny spaces with dexterity.

"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," New Scientist
quoted Laschi, as saying.

Laschi
and colleagues in the UK, Switzerland, Turkey, Greece and Israel are testing
artificial muscle technologies that will more accurately mimic
tentacles.

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.

The
study has been published in Biomimetics and Bioinspiration.

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