Pneumatic octopus is first octobot: soft, solo robot

Soft robotics could revolutionise how humans interact with machines, but researchers have long struggled to build entirely compliant robots. A chemical reaction inside the drone converts a small quantity of liquid fuel (hydrogen peroxide) into a large quantity of gas, which moves into the octobot’s arms and expands them like a balloon.

It comes from the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) at Harvard University – and it takes the form of a 7cm pneumatic octopus. Thanks to the absence of rigid components in its scheme, octobot does not need batteries or wires, told the octobot’s creators in the publication in a journal Nature.

At the moment, the soft and squidgy robot can only run between four and eight minutes, but researchers say that could be improved using a more sophisticated design. Such an octobot made from silicone gels of varying stiffness, it eats the power of a chemical reaction that pushes gas through chambers in its rubbery legs. But the clever bit is that this simple reaction is controlled not by electronics, but by a soft analog of a simple electronic oscillator that guides and regulates the robot’s movements to perform desired functions.

A team of Harvard boffins has invented the world’s first soft bodied robot which is modelled on an octopus. Its power source is hydrogen peroxide, which together with a catalyst of platinum, creates gas that travels into the bot’s appendages to move them. The researchers say soft robots can adapt more easily to some environments than rigid machines, and this research could lead to autonomous robots that can sense their surroundings and interact with people.

“The octobot is a simple embodiment created to demonstrate our integrated design and additive fabrication strategy for embedding autonomous functionality”.

Building the ideal soft robot, however, is no easy feat. In this case, it’s a series of tubes and bladders powered by hydrogen peroxide.

The plan is to double down on the octopus design – a logical idea, considering the power and versatility of “the boneless one”, as Hesiod called it.

“The entire system is simple to fabricate, by combining three fabrication methods – soft lithography, molding and 3D printing – we can quickly manufacture these devices”, said Ryan Truby, a graduate student in the Lewis lab and co-first author of the paper.

One of the researchers, PhD student Ryan Truby, told BBC News it took many years to flawless the design and many more months to fine-tune it.

The microfluidic network, it should be mentioned, builds on the work of chemist and co-author George Whitesides, also from the Wyss Institute.