Want a Robot to *Really* Get a Grip? Make It Like Baymax

The octopus is unique among animals in that it can essentially turn itself into liquid, Terminator style. Get yourself a 600-pound octopus and leave it unsupervised and the thing will squeeze itself into a quarter-sized tube and melt its way to freedom. And its manipulation superpowers are legendary--cram it into a jar and it'll unscrew its way out. So it goes when you've got no bones. And loosey-goosey octopuses can teach us a thing or two about robots. An company called Soft Robotics has developed an inflatable, cephalopod-inspired gripper made of pliable polymer fingers.