The Tentacle Bot

Of all the cool things about octopuses (and there are a lot), their arms may rank among the coolest. Two-thirds of an octopus's neurons are in its arms, meaning each arm literally has a mind of its own. The hundreds of suckers that cover their arms can form strong seals even on rough surfaces underwater. Imagine if a robot could do all that. Researchers at Harvard's Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering and John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and colleagues from Beihang University have developed an octopus-inspired soft robotic arm that can grip, move, and manipulate a wide range of objects.