Humans are prone to extreme views on robots.
You may see them as humanity's inevitable
murderers or future lovers -- and they'll
be able to excel at either task now that Harvard
University has given them
squishy octopus bodies.
Now don't get too hot and bothered as you
imagine the embrace of synthetic tentacles,
because the octobot in question here is pretty
tiny -- scarcely the size of the memory card
in your camera.
He also doesn't really do all that much.
But the little guy's still an important breakthrough:
Earth's first autonomous, wireless, entirely
soft and squishy robot.
Inspired by the dexterous-yet-powerful bodies
of real-life octopi, the team of Harvard scientists
3D printed all of the robot's functional components
out of non-rigid materials.
Just like its organic counterpart, the octobot
lacks an endoskeleton.
The subtle automaton is powered by chemical
reaction.
It transforms quantities of liquid hydrogen
peroxide into a larger quantity of gas via
a soft electronic oscillator.
The gas inflates bladders in the ocotobot's
arms as needed,
summoning them to balloon-like life.
The octobot is a proof-of-concept model.
You're not gonna catch it doing much other
than kind of writhing around in the water,
but the researchers hope to develop a version
that can crawl, swim
and interact with its environment.
But the importance here goes far beyond mere
robots that work like octopi.
It's the sort of technology that may lead
to improved biomedical devices
and robotic surgery.
Just imagine a synthetic octopus that slides
through an incision in your abdomen
into your body cavity and then carries out diagnosis
or surgical repair from the inside.
Now that's a Doc Oct we can all get excited
about.
So what's your take on this technology?
Would you let your soft-bodied robot doctor
slip inside you?
Let us know and if you crave more weird, futuristic
wonder, be sure to check out
now.howstuffworks.com each and every day.
